b PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL London: Huntphrey Milford Oxford University Press PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL BY H. F. ROBERTS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 1929 COPYRIGHT, 1929, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINTED AT THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A. PREFACE IN the present work it is intended to present, in some fulness and detail, all the significant results obtained in the field of plant- hybridization, down to the discovery of Mendel's papers in 1900. The work of the early hybridists has never hitherto been adequately analyzed and discussed as a whole. Attention has been so concentrated upon Mendelian problems, that the contributions of the precursors of the present scientific period in genetics have been mostly overlooked, and not infrequently underestimated. To bring these contributions out of oblivion, to present them in se- quence, and in their relation to one another and to our present knowledge, is the aim and purpose of the writer. In assembling this material, the work of individual breeders upon the improve- ment of some single species of plant, usually conducted entirely from an empirical or purely practical standpoint, has generally been omitted, those investigators only being included who have contributed in some essential manner to the theory of fertilization and hybridization in plants, and who have thereby laid a founda- tion for the synthetic development of genetic theory. If Mendel's papers themselves have been analyzed with unusual minuteness and detail, it is because the writer feels that such a thoroughgoing analysis is generally omitted in the current text-books on heredity, and that in a work of this sort, intended to be historical rather than genetic in character and also intended to be useful for refer- ence purposes and to the general reader, it should be his duty to make as complete an exposition as possible of each investigator's contribution. It should be therefore^stated that in the presentation of the Mendel material the details have been given with the same thoroughness and simplicity as though the paper were being re- viewed for the first time. It was thought by this means to be more nearly possible to bring Mendel's actual work into its deserved relief, too often obscured by brief statement. This will also suffice to account for the simple and elementary re-statement of the vi PREFACE dominant-recessive character relations. For a discussion of the extended development of theory and investigation based upon the Mendelian discovery, reference must naturally be made to the va- rious general text-books and handbooks in genetics, and to the multitude of papers in the journals of biological science. It has been necessary to make frequent use of the resources of various libraries. Appreciation is particularly due the libraries of the University of Chicago, Harvard, the Crerar Library of Chi- cago, and the library of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for liberal access to works of reference. Especial thanks are due the library of the University of Manitoba for affording every possible means for obtaining material, and for securing the loan of important books. The writer desires to express especial thanks to Dr. Geo. H. Shull and Dr. E. G. Conklin of Princeton University, for most thorough editorial reading given the manuscript in an earlier draft. Their many constructive suggestions have been largely utilized. For the manuscript in its present form, however, together with any imperfections that may appear, the author is solely responsible. The subject-matter of portions of the first four chapters has appeared in past issues of the Journal of Heredity, to which acknowledgments are due for the privilege of their reproduc- tion in their present form, and for the use of the accompanying illustrations. The Gartner material has appeared in part in the American Naturalist. The portrait of Darwin is reproduced by permission of the Cambridge University Press, from Volume I of Professor Karl Pearson's "Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton." The portraits of Mendel and of Bateson, and the illustration of the Konigskloster in Briinn, are reproduced from the Report of the Royal Horticultural Conference on genetics, 1906, by permission of the President and Council of the Royal Horticultural Society. The portraits of MM. Louis and Henry de Vilmorin are furnished by the courtesy of Messrs. Vilmorin & Co. of Paris. The portrait of Galton is reproduced by per- mission from Vol. II of Biometrika. A copy of Sir Thomas Mil- lington's portrait was obtained by consent from the original in the Royal College of Physicians in London. The copies of the Assyrian bas-reliefs in Plates VIII, IX, and X, are photographed PREFACE vii from the originals in the British Museum, Nimrud Gallery, Nos. 24, 40, and 2. The portrait of Linnaeus (Plate XV) is from Plate VIll, opp. p. 36, of the collection entitled "Linneportratt vid Uppsala A Universitets Vagnar af Tycho TuUberg, Stockholm, 1907." The younger portrait of Camerarius (Plate XIl) is fur- nished by Professor E. Lehmann of the University of Tubingen, from the oil painting in the library of the University. The por- trait of Naudin was kindly obtained by Professor Georges Poir- ault, of the Villa Thuret, Cap d'Antibes, France, and that of Godron by the Doyen of the Faculte des Sciences of the Univer- sity of Nancy. To Professor E. Baur of Berlin, acknowledgments are due for valuable biographical material on Sprengel and Focke, and to Professor Correns for a portrait of Wichura. To Professors De Vries, Correns and von Tschermak are due especial thanks for kindly furnishing full accounts of their individual discoveries of the Mendel papers and the Mendelian theory. In conclusion, with regard to the form of the present book, which may be criticized for its considerable volume of quoted material, it should be said that two ways were open; — simply to digest the material and present it without quotation except in very significant instances ; or to give liberal extracts from the works themselves, in order to sub- serve the purposes of research to those desiring access to the actual corpus of material embodied in the works of the early hy- bridists. In some of the Nageli and Kolreuter material, for ex- ample, the former method was followed, but in general the latter was chosen, even at the risk of creating in part a volume of ex- tracts. It was thought that the real ends of science would be best served in a book of this kind by making it available directly as research material, rather than by sacrificing those ends to the aims of authorship. Hence the resulting rather cumbrous form of the material, which could have been otherwise displayed if the former method had been exclusively followed. It is hoped, how- ever, that the purpose of the book" may be allowed to apologize for its resultant form. H. F. Roberts. UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA. AUGUST 2, 1928. CONTENTS CHAPTER I 1 2 3 4 5 6 Early experiments in plant breeding 1 Date culture in early Babylonia and Assyria i The relation of the date palm to plant breeding 4 Variation and selection of the date 7 The discovery of sex in plants 9 Camerarius 12 Linnaeus 15 CHAPTER n 8. Kolreuter 34 CHAPTER in 9. Miscellaneous experiments regarding sex in plants 62 10. Gleditsch's palm pollination experiments 70 11. Christian Konrad Sprengel 78 CHAPTER IV 12. Thomas Andrew Knight 85 13. William Herbert 94 14. John Goss and Alexander Seton 102 15. The experiments of Thomas Laxton 104 16. The work of Patrick Shirreff llO CHAPTER V 17. The experiments of Sageret 120 18. Godron and Naudin on hybridization 123 19. Ve riot's memoir on the breeding of plants 136 20. The work of the Vilmorins 143 21. Lecoq's memoir on hybridization 154 4:.^H5a X CONTENTS CHAPTER VI 22. Wiegmann's experiments l6o 23. The work of Carl Friedrich von Gartner 164 24. Wichura and the hybridization of willows 178 25". Kegel on hybridization 183 26. Carl von Nageli and the hybrid question 183 27. Treatise of W. O. Focke 204 28. The Hoffmann Mendel citations 216 CHAPTER VII 29. Darwin's contribution to the theory of hybrids 221 CHAPTER vin 30. Sir Francis Galton's investigations in heredity 241 CHAPTER IX 31. Miscellaneous investigations on the histological structure of hybrids : 260 a. Henslow 260 h. Macfarlane 262 c. Wilson 275 d. Darbishire 276 32. Spillman, Mendelian results with wheat, prior to 1900 276 CHAPTER X 33. The investigation of Gregor Mendel 286 CHAPTER XI 34. The discovery of Mendel's papers : 320 a. Hugo De Vries 324 h. C. Correns 335 c. E. von Tschermak 343 CHAPTER XII 33". The contribution of William Bateson 359 Index 367 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate I Date palms in Mesopotamia l Plate II Flowers of the date 2 Plate III Date inflorescences 3 Plate IV Young date tree in fruit 4 Plate V Fruiting branch of the date 5 Plate VI Demonstration by Arabs of the pollination of the date 6 Plate VII Demonstration by Arabs of the polltnatiofi of the date 7 Plate VIII Figure of Ashur-nasir-pal attended by winged mythological being 8 Plate IX Assyrian bas-relief of priest 9 Plate X Two figures of Ashur-nasir-pal attended by priests 10 Plate XI Rudolph Jacob Camerarius 13 xii ILLUSTRATIONS Plate XII Camerarius, younger portrait 14 Plate XIII Title-page of the extract from Camerarius' ''De Sexu Plantarum Epistold" 15 Plate XIV Title-page of Valentiris ''Res pons oria' to the Camer- arius Epistola 16 Plate XV Carl von Linne 17 Plate XVI Title-page of the ''Disquisitio de Sexu Plantarum'^ of Linnaeus 18 Plate XVII Title-page of the ''Plantae Hybridae" of Johannes Haartman 25* Plate XVIII Linnaeus' Hybrid^ "Veronica maritima X Verbena officinalis'' 27 Plate XIX J. G. Kblreuter 3^ Plate XX Sir Thomas Milling ton 63 Plate XXI Philip Miller 67 Plate XXII James Logan 69 Plate XXIII Title-page of SprengeVs ''Das Entdeckte Geheimmss der Natur" 79 ILLUSTRATIONS xiii Plate XXIV Thomas Andrew Knight 86 Plate XXV Patrick Shirreff ill Plate XXVI D. A. Godron , 124 Plate XXVII Charles Naudin 125 Plate XXVIII Louis Leveque de Vilmorin 145 Plate XXIX Henry Leveque de Vilmorin 146 Plate XXX Henri Lecoq 152 Plate XXXI C. F. von Gartner 165 Plate XXXII Village of Calzv, in Wurtemberg^ home of C. F. von Gartner 166 Plate XXXUI Marketplace in Calzu 166 Plate XXXIV Present site in Calzu of a portion of the former experimental garden of C. F. von Gartner 167 Plate XXXV Max Ernest Wichura 179 Plate XXXVI Carl von Ndgeli 184 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS Plate XXXVII W. O. Focke 205 Plate XXXVIII Hermann Hoffmann 2,17 Plate XXXIX ' Charles Darwin 2,22 Plate XL Sir Francis Gallon 242 Plate XLI Digitalis lutea X purpurea; flowernig organs and tis- sues of parents and F^ hybrid, by J. S. Henslow 261 Plate XLII Gregor Mendel 287 Plate XLI 1 1 The Augustinian Cloister at Brilnn 288 Plate XLIV Hugo De Vries 3^2 Plate XLV C. Correns 33^ Plate XLVI E. von Tschermak 344 Plate XLVI I William Bateson 3^0 Plate XLVI 1 1 Facsimile of letter of Mendel to Ndgeli, with signature 3^2 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL ^■4t,«A^t^li^ tci^^ Copyright, Underwood & Underwood Plate I. Date palms in Mesopotamia. CHAPTER I THE EARLIEST DISCOVERIES REGARDING SEX IN PLANTS 1. Early Experiments in Plant Breeding. A FULL discussion of the history of the views, opinions, and discoveries regarding sex in plants is reserved for a later publication. On this account, therefore, the present ref- erences to the subject will be necessarily brief. Exactly where or when man first began to practise the cultiva- tion of plants and to bring them into domestication is not known. It is certain however, that one of the earliest homes of civilized man was in the lower basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southwestern Asia, today known as Iraq, the site of the tradi- tional "Garden of Eden." From four to six thousand years before the present era, and at least fifteen hundred years before the days of the Jewish patri- arch Abraham, this region was occupied by an already ancient, orderly and settled people, possessing both cultivated plants and domestic animals. Indeed, there is little reason to doubt that the low alluvial plain fed by the "waters of Babylon" was the scene of one of the first of civilized man's attempts at the improvement of plants, for it is known that the cultivation of the date palm was being carried on in this region during the very earliest times. 2. Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia and Assyria. The history of the date palm typifies better than that of almost any other plant, man's relation to the plant world as a moulder of its cultivated forms. The fact of the culture of dates in Mesopotamia in ancient times is demonstrated by Babylonian and Assyrian monuments, and was recorded by several of the early Greek historians ; the monuments show not only the fact of the culture of the date, but even plainly represent the process of hand-pollination. Plate II. Flowers of the date. Right (open cluster), staminate ; left, pistillate. From U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 53, Plate 7, Fig. 3. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 3 In an Assyrian bas-relief, Ashurbanipal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks {circa 650 B.C.), is represented in his garden, with fruiting garlands of the grape overhead, while to the rear a date palm is represented laden with fruit. The tremendous economic value of this remarkable tree, even Plate III. Date inflorescences. Left, staminate inflorescence just emerging from the sheath ; right (3 figures), pistillate inflorescence in different stages. From U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 53, Plate 7, Figs. 1 and 2. in early times, was attested by a Persian hymn, referred to by Strabo (13),^ which is reported as having mentioned three hun- dred and sixty uses for the plant. Later, in the thirteenth century, the celebrated traveller, Marco Polo, speaks of a "city called Bastra (modern Busreh), surrounded by woods in which are grown the best dates in the world." 1 Numbers in parentheses refer to the bibliographical list to be found at the end of each chapter. 4 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 3. The Relation of the Date Palm to Plant Breeding. It had probably always been recognized, since animals were first extensively domesticated, that the fact of sex lay at the basis of whatever improvement in their characters man could bring Plate IV. A young date tree in fruit. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 271, Plate 9, Fig. 2. about, for the reason that, in animals, "breeding" has always meant the use of superior breeding animals (usually superior males) in crossing. In plants, however, the fact of sex is less evident than in animals, partly because in most plants the sexes are not separated. In the date palm we have at the same time a plant of great economic value in certain regions, and one in which the sexes exist separately as in the higher animals. It therefore PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 5 came to be recognized, from very early times, that the date trees were of two kinds, sterile and fruit-bearing, in other words, "male" and "female," and that the product of a sterile "male" Plate V. Fruiting branch of the date ; Deglet Nur variety, showing the fruiting stalk or peduncle (Arabic "Sobata'^), and the individual bearing-strands or pedicels, known collectively (Arabic) as the "Shamrokh." U.S. Depanmtnt of AgricuLure, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 223, Fig. 12. tree was needed in order to ensure the bearing of fruit by a fertile "female" tree. Kazwini (6), an Arabic writer on natural history, says of the date : "It is created out of the same substance as Adam, and is the only tree that is artificially fertilized." The seeds of the date palm produce in about equal numbers male and female trees. The female trees are wind-pollinated, and therefore under natural wild conditions there would easily be enough male trees to fertilize them. Under cultivation, however, the growing of such a large proportion of non-fruiting or sterile trees would be a very wasteful use of the land, and we find that quite early (probably as early as Babylonian and Assyrian times) 6 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL it was discovered that the pollen from a small number of male trees could be employed to fertilize a considerable number of female trees, by substituting hand-pollination for the natural Plate VI. Demonstration by Arabs of the pollination of the date. Insertion of a sprig of the staminate flowers in the midst of the pistillate cluster. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 53, Plate 8, Fig. 3. method. At the present time, according to Swingle (14), the pro- portion used in planting is about one male to one hundred female trees. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 7 4. Variation and Selection of the Date. It was soon learned that, when the seeds from the fruits thus obtained by fertilization w^ere planted, the offspring could no more be depended upon to bear fruits like the original, than can the seedlings of budded peaches, apples or pears. As a matter of fact, Plate VII. Demonstration by Arabs of the pollination of the date. Clusters of the pistillate flowers being tied together to hold the staminate flowers in place. U.S. De- partment of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. 53, Plate 8, Fig. 4. 8 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL the seedlings coming from any given variety of date show a very wide range of variation, and it is said that the original parent type seldom re-appears among the seedlings (14). This diversity of type among seedling dates has led to the es- ^■^ >>*** l$yiJ <*** y./ ^^, ^jdW* Plate VIII. Figure of Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria, 883-859 B.C., attended by a winged mythological being carrying pollination basket in left hand, and in the right the staminate inflorescence of the date palm — a ceremonial act. Slab 24, Nimrud Gallery, British Museum. tablishment of a great number of varieties in cultivation. From four oases in the Sahara alone over four hundred distinct varieties of dates are reported, which differ greatly from one another in many cases, in the size, shape, and flavor of the fruits. It is possible to see, therefore, that through the medium of the date palm, at a very early period, the fact was learned of the PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 9 existence of variation in cultivated plants, a fact which renders selection possible, and in a manner also there was learned the fact of the existence of sex in plants, upon which "plant breeding" is based. 5. The Discovery of Sex in Plants. We have seen that the Assyrians and Babylonians understood : '*m':^f^i^:^fiSffif^^f^.&&^ 10, Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden), Haak, Holmiae (Holm), Salvius, « (( Erlangae (Erlangen), Schreber, 1749 1762 1764 1759 1760 1763 1769 1785 1785 1790 The first nine volumes contain altogether 186 dissertations. Vol. 10 contains ten addresses, followed by four scientific con- tributions, "Dissertationes Botanicae." 9. Mason^ S. C. Dates of Egypt and the Sudan, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dep't of Agriculture, Bull. 71, Sept. 1925. 10. Marceilinus, Ammianus. Ammiani Marcellini rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt. ed. Carolus U. Clark, adjuvantibus Ludovico Traube et Guli- elmo Heraeo. Berlin, 1810, Vol. 1, Libri XIV-XXV. (Concern- ing the date palm, see Bk. 24, 3, 12-13.) 11. Pliny (Gains Plimus Secundus). (a) G. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historiae Libri XXXVIII. Re- censuit lulius Sillig. 8 vols., Hamburg & Gotha, i8';i. (Concerning the date palm, see Bk. 13, ill, 7.) (b) The Natural History of Pliny, translated by John Bos- tock and H. T. Riley, 6 vols., Henry G. Bohn, 1855. (See 3:171-2.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 33 12. Popenoe^ Paul B. (a) Babylonian dates for California. Pomona College Jour, of Economic Botany, 3:459, May 1913. (b) The pollination of the date palm. Journal of the Amer- ican Oriental Society, 41 :343-54, 1922. 13. Strabo. (a) Strabonis geographica, curantibus C. Mullero et F. Du- buero, I Vol. Paris, 1853. (See Bk. 17, Cap. 1.) (b) The geography of Strabo, with an English translation by Horace Leonard Jones, 8 vols., i6mo. London and New York, 1917. 14. Swingle, Walter T. The date palm and its utilization in the southwestern states. Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dep't of Agriculture, Circ. 19. June 1913. 15. Theophrastus. (a) Theophrasti Eresii quae supersunt opera et excerpta li- brorum, ed. G. Schneider, 5 vols. Leipzig, 1818. (Vol. 1, Greek Text: Vol. 2, Latin trans. De historia plantarum, 200 pp.; De causis plantarum, 194 pp. (See on the date palm, De Hist. PL, Bk. 2 ; Cap. 6 & 8.; De Causis PL, Bk. 1, Cap. 20; Bk. 2, Cap. 9, Bk. 3, Cap. 18.) (b) Inquiry into plants, and minor works on odors and weather signs, with an English translation by Sir Arthur Hort. 2 vols. i6mo. London and New York. 1916. CHAPTER II 8. Kdlr enter (1733-1806). CAMERARIUS' memoir fell on sterile, or rather on unpre- pared soil. Over half a century elapsed before one was found to speak his praise as follows: "Rudolph Jacob Camerarius is indisputably the first who proved the sex of plants through his own experiments instituted from this point of view. He, my fellow countryman, it is whom the learned world has principally to thank for this great truth, which is so general, and of such great influence upon the physical and economic sciences. Camer- arius it was, who criticised in the most fundamental way everything of this material, as well that which was found in the oldest as in the new- est writings of his time ; compared them with one another and, to- gether with a quantity of his own observations and useful applications, whereby the theory of this truth has now been strengthened, laid the matter before the learned world in a letter to Mich. Bernard Valentin." These were the words of Joseph Gottlieb Kolreuter. From the 25th of August, 1694, th^ <^^te of Camerarius' letter concerning his experiments upon sex in plants, until September 1, 1761, there was made no fundamental progress in the real scientific knowledge of the phenomena of inheritance. On this latter date appeared Kolreuter's "Preliminary Report of some Experiments and Observations concerning Sex in Plants." This report was fol- lowed in 1763, 1764, and 1766, by three supplementary papers on the same subject, which record the results of 136 distinct experi- ments in the crossing of plants. If Camerarius made the actual scientific discovery concerning sex in plants, Kolreuter was the first to give to this discovery scientific application. He was born x\pril 27, 1733, in the Swabian village of Sulz, in the valley of the Neckar, in the Black Forest region of Southwest Germany. From 1760 to 1764, he conducted his experiments, partly in his native village, partly in the garden of a physician, Achatius Gartner, in the town of Calw in Wiir- temberg, and partly in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Leipzig. From 1764 until his death in 1806, he was Professor of Natural His- fLMl. AiA. J. l,j. I\l)l I ClUir I , 1/33-1806. 36 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL tory in the University of Karlsruhe. At Sulz, in 1760, Kolreuter produced the first plant hybrid obtained in a scientific experiment. Kolreuter's most important papers, his "Vorlaufige Nachricht," and its three 'Tortsetzungen" (1), cover a reported period from 1760 to 1766. In the former year, Kolreuter secured his first hy- brid, Nicotiana paniculata 9 y<( N. rustica 5 . The experiments during the following six years, numbering 65 definitely described, covered crosses involving 13 genera and 54 species. Before tak- ing up these experiments in detail, and especially those of ge- netic interest, it will be well to deal with Kolreuter's views or conclusions with respect to the fertilization process and hybridiza- tion. In the first place, it will be understood that Kolreuter worked with the microscope. Sprengel indeed remarks, regarding the for- mer's study of pollination in Asclepias, that some of the observa- tions therein he himself had not been able to make. "Da ich kein so gutes Vergrosserungsglas zur Hand gehabt habe, als Kolreu- ter." (2, 1 : 165.) It is desirable also to remember that Kolreuter not only carried on his investigations upon hybrids, but made extensive observations upon pollination. Indeed it is possible that Sprengel's title for his work "Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur," (1793) may have been suggested by Kolreuter's remark, "Gewiss ein jeder anderer, der vor mir diese Betracht- ungen angestellet hatte, wiirde sie langst entdeckt, und sich und alien Naturforschern von diesem Geheimnisse der Natur den Vorhang langst weggezogen haben." (p. 21.) Kolreuter himself alludes to his use of a "Vergrosserungsglas," in his search for the stigmatic surfaces in Iris (i, p. 22), and in the examination of the pollen in his first Nicotiana hybrid, (p. 31.) Kolreuter considers that the pollen is a collection of organic particles, which have a definite form in every plant. In structure, the pollen grain consists of an outer thick membrane or rather of a hard and elastic shell, upon which, at equal distances apart, are found the "excretion-canals" and openings for escape of the male fertilizing material. In the species in which the pollen grains are beset with projections, these excretion-canals are in the pro- jections themselves, being found at their apices. Within the elas- tic shell, there is stated to be a netlike mass of vascular fibres which, in some species, is arranged in almost regular hexagonal fashion; in others, in some other more or less regular way. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 37 "Through the substance of this elastic shell," says Kolreuter, "one sees an extended net of vascular fibres which, in a few species of pol- lens, is divided off into almost regular six-sided eyes, in others in an- other more or less regular way." (p. 7.) Each such division or "eye" serves as the point of location for one of the elevations or projections, in which an excretion-canal terminates. Immediately beneath the outer shell is a thinner, weaker, white membrane, beneath which is "an apparently cellular tissue, which fills the entire cavity of the pol- len grain and is, as it were, the nucleus (Kern) of the latter." (p. 8.) It is probable that the Kolreuter idea would be better translated by the word "kernel" than by the word "nucleus," with its mod- ern connotations. This material or substance which, in the unripe condition, is described as granular, firm and half-transparent, finally at maturity passes over into a uniform, fluid, and trans- parent material, which comes out of the "cellular tissue." The words "cellular tissue" (zellenformiges Gewebe) must likewise not be taken in the sense of "tissue-cells," but in the sense of a body or mass of something, enclosed in a cell-like envelope. Nothing more definite than this could possibly have been seen by Kolreuter. The tube and generative cells, the only "structures," visible within the pollen grain through the walls of the exine, that could possibly be taken in any sense as "cellular," may have been visible to Kolreuter's microscope. In this "tissue," at all events, is said to be found the entire mass of the male fertilizing material. The divisions or "eyes," thought by Kolreuter to be within the "elastic shell," are evidently the more or less geometrical reticula- tions on the outer surface of the exine of the pollen grain in many species. The escape of the contents of the pollen grains is consid- ered to be brought about by the contraction and pressure of its thick outer coat. In consequence of this pressure, the contents are expelled through the "excretion canals" on all sides at once. The swelling of the pollen grain is presumed to take place through the absorption of water. With the beginning of maturity of the contents of the pollen grain, the inner coat acquires firmness and elasticity and, by virtue of this, presses from all sides upon the fertilizing material within, which has now become fluid, and forces it into the place of least resistance, the open excretion canals. 38 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL (p. 8.) This is the character of the pollen grain and the manner of its germination as Kolreuter conceived it. The male fertilizing material, as well as the secretion upon the stigmas, is considered to be of an oily nature. These two secre- tions commingle with one another, when they come together, in the most intimate manner and make, after commingling, a uni- form mass, which, when fertilization ensues, is sucked in by the stigma, and must be conducted through the style to the ovules, — the so-called "seed-eggs" (Saameneyern) or unfertilized "germs" (Keimen). Kolreuter recognizes that a certain number of pollen grains are required for fertilization in every flower, but this number, in comparison with the number produced, is very small. Kolreuter remarks that, in a Ketmia flower of average size, 4,863 pollen grains are produced, but that, for the fertilization of the 30-odd seeds in a single capsule, not more than 50-60 pollen grains are required. He found that, the more the number of pol- len grains fell below this number, proportionately fewer were the number of seeds produced. If as few as 15 or 20 pollen grains were used, only 10-16 seeds were fertilized, (p. 12.) It was found, moreover, that with this small number of pollen grains the seed capsule after a time began to wilt, and finally fell off. If fewer than 10 pollen grains were used, "then it was just as though 1 had taken none at all." No trace of fertilization followed, and the ovary degenerated and fell off, in still less time. This ex- periment tallies closely with the preceding one, in demonstrating that, in the species in question, about two pollen grains are re- quired on the average per ovule, making allowances for the failure of some grains to germinate, and for the failure of the pollen tubes of others to reach the ovary. These latter details were entirely unknown to Kolreuter, who believed he was dealing with a mass effect. In the common Mirabilis jalapa the number of pollen grains reached 293, and in a Peruvian species, 121 ; but of this number but one, or at most two or three, were required for fertilization. Kolreuter found by experiment that in a plant with 2-5 stigmas, by abscission of all but one, and pollinating that one "with a sufficient quantity of pollen" (p. 13), ripe seeds developed in all the cells of the ovary. He states this was found even to be the case in plants in which the stigmas were separated to the base, as in Paris. This was so also in Hypericum he says, PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 39 in which each of the five separate stigmas is directed outward toward its own cell of the ovary. Kolreuter made rather extensive examinations of the pollen grains of several hundred genera, and comments on their form and relative sizes. He remarks on the fact that, in almost all grasses, the stigmas are self-pollinated within the closed flower. He comments at some considerable length upon the manner of pollination of a number of species, and especially upon the fact of pollination by insects. Regard- ing the activity of insects in fertilization, the only example thus far known, he says, is the fig tree : "is it then," he continues (p. 19), "something so wholly exceptional, if Nature, for the maintenance of certain creatures, makes use of others which have no resemblance with them. Experience has taught me pre- cisely the truth of this, that has long been maintained for the fig tree, and for the case of many other and in part very common plants. In all the Cucurbitaceae, in all the Iridaceae, and with not a few plants from the order of Mallows (Malvaceae), fertilization of the female flowers and stigmas occurs only through insects." In speaking of the fact that cucumbers and melons, confined within hot-beds, do not set fruit, he says : "Up to the present day one has ascribed to the wind the pollination of the female flowers ; but one would necessarily have had to come to other ideas, if one had only brought the location of the male and fe- male flowers, their form, and the structure of the pollen into closer observation." (p. 20.) He then continues : "And how can one do this, without immediately finding the cause of the pollination in those busy creatures (i.e., the insects). Certainly, any other one, who before me had instituted these observations, would have long since discerned them, and have drawn aside the curtain of this se- cret of Nature for himself and all investigators of Nature." (p. 20.) Kolreuter investigated the pollination of the Iris (pp. 22-4), and describes with scientific and minute exactness the details of his discoveries. He was apparently the first to discern the actual location of the stigmatic surfaces, in the triangular area toward the apices of the leaf-like so-called stigmas, the inner surfaces of which he found to be covered "over and over with pointed papil- lae" smeared with a moist secretion. "I did not let the matter rest there," he says, "but instituted very many experiments thereupon, which finally completely convinced me that this small part is the true stigma in these plants." (p. 23.) The opening of the flower, and the relations of the several 40 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL parts, are described at some length, and the pollination discov- ered to be by means of humble-bees. From his experiments with the Iridaceae and Malvaceae, Kol- reuter concludes : "l have instituted very many and various experiments and observa- tions, w^hich have completely convinced me that the pollination of the stigmas (in the two groups mentioned) is not to be ascribed either to the location which the parts of the flower have to one another, nor to the wind, but simply to the insects alone." (p. 25.) Kolreuter also comments on the fact that: "if one takes away at the same time from a certain number of flowers their still closed anthers, yet their stigmas will always be covered over with a sufficient quantity of pollen, which the insects carry thither from other flowers standing in the neighborhood." (p. 27.) Thus concludes the general botanical discussion in Kolreuter's first Nachricht, which occupies a space in the Oswald edition of 28 pages, and which has been discussed at length because it is seldom commented upon, and because it shows the preliminary preparation for his hybridization experiments which Kolreuter obtained through natural history investigations at first hand. The development of the pollen tube was not known in Kolreu- ter's time, having been first observed by Amici in Portulaca in 1823; the penetration of each pollen tube into the ovary and to the micropyle of the ovule, by the same investigator in 1830; and the development of the embryo from an egg cell already present in the embryo-sac before the arrival of the pollen-tube, which stimulates it to further development, also by Amici in 1846. (Sachs, "Hist, of Bot.," 432.) The number of 50-60 pollen grains, found by Kolreuter by experiment to be the mini- mum number requisite for the fertilization of the 30 or so seeds in a capsule, represented to Kolreuter's mind in a manner the mass amount of the "exudate" required. This latter was sup- posed, as stated, to be excreted by compression from the matur- ing pollen grain upon the stigma, there absorbed, and drawn through special conduction or secretion canals into the interior of the ovary. One can, Kolreuter continues (p. 21), by exposing the female flowers to the wind, while excluding the approach of insects, con- vince himself, through the immediately succeeding death of the ovary, that pollination in such plants could not occur by means PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 41 of the wind. Kolreuter then describes, in very considerable detail, the pollination process in Iris, in the mallows, and in the water- lilies. In Argemone, Hypericum, Oenothera, Epilobium, Polemo- nium, Echium, Hyoscyamus, Nicotiana, Antirrhinum, Scrophularia and others, certain details of the pollination process are more briefly remarked upon. The general discussion of pollination concludes as follows : "Everywhere, insects are always involved, in the case of plants in which pollination does not ordinarily occur through direct contact ; and they have the most to do with their pollination, and consequently also with their fertilization, and probably they furnish, if not to all plants, at least to a very great part of them, this uncommonly great service : for almost all flowers belonging here carry something with them that is agreeable to insects, and one will not easily find one of them with which they are not to be found in quantity." (p. 28.) Kolreuter now begins his discussion of hybrids. Many so-called hybrids are probably products of the imagination. There are per- haps scarcely any among them which might rightly deserve this name. "How can one give them out with certainty as such," he says, "before one has produced them through art and, indeed, through the most un- remitting experiments." (p. 29.) The First ''Mule Plant." In rather naive fashion Kolreuter describes the reasons which led him to experiment upon the breeding of plants. He calls at- tention to the fact that man has brought together, in botanical and zoological gardens, plants and animals from all quarters of the earth. With animals, this has given rise to the possibility of making hybrids. The history of Kol renter's first hybridization ex- periment is given as follows : "As improbable as it is, that of two different kinds of animals, which have lived in their natural freedom, a hybrid should ever have been produced, so improbable is it also that, in the orderly arrangement that nature has made in the plant kingdom, a hybrid plant should have arisen. Nature, which always, even in the greatest apparent disorder, adheres to the most beautiful order, has precluded this confusion, in the case of wandering animals, aside from other means, through the natural instincts, and in the case of plants, in which their all too close proximity, the wind, and insects, give a daily opportunity for an unnatural inter- mixture, she will without doubt have known, through just as certain means, how to take away their force from the operations to be feared therefrom. Presumably, aside from the natural instincts, they are just the same as occur with animals. Perhaps it has also been one of her designs to preclude such a disarrangement to be feared therefrom, that A r« «. 42 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL she has transferred one plant to Africa, and assigned to another its place in America. Perhaps in part for this reason it has happened, that she has enclosed within the boundaries of a certain region only such plants as, in regard to structure, have the least resemblance amongst themselves, and which, consequently, are also least qualified to cause a confusion amongst themselves, if these conjectures have their founda- tion, as I almost believe, then, in the botanical gardens, where plants of all kinds and from all parts of the world, are together in a narrow space, hybrid plants will probably be able to originate, especially if one puts them together according to a systematic arrangement, and conse- quently those which have the greatest resemblance to one another. Man at least here gives to plants, in a certain manner, the opportunity which he gives to his animals brought from parts of the world lying far dis- tant from one another, Avhich he keeps confined, contrary to nature, in a zoological garden, or in a still narrower space. Would indeed a gold- finch ever have mated with a canary bird, and have produced hybrid offspring, if man had not provided for them the opportunity of coming to know one another more closely^ Should not, therefore, hybrid plants have already arisen in botanical gardens '? Precisely the reasons, which to me made their production under natural conditions suspicious, move me to admit it under this unnatural one. Because I had already been long convinced of the sex of plants, and had never doubted the possi- bility of such an unnatural procreation, yet I still allowed mj^self to be deterred by nothing from instituting experiments on this subject, in the good hope that I might perhaps be indeed so fortunate as to procure a hybrid plant. I have finally in fact, after many experiments instituted in vain with many kinds of plants, in the past yea.T of 1760, in the case of two different species of a natural genus (bey zwoen verschiedenen Gat- tungen eines natiirlichen Geschlechts), namely, in the case of Nicotiana {paniculata) [Linn. Sp. Pi., p. 180, n. 2], and Nicotiana (rustica) [Linn. Sp. Pi., p. 180, n. 3], gotten so far that I have fertilized with the pollen- dust (Saamenstaube) of the former, the ovary of the other, obtained perfect seeds, and from these, still in the same year, have raised young plants." (la, pp. 29-30.) Regarding the nature of his experiment, Kolreuter says: "since I have made this experiment with many flowers, at different times and with all possible precaution, and have thereby every time obtained normal fertilization and perfect seeds, I could not in the least believe that perchance an oversight might have occurred in the experi- ment, and that the plants already produced from the seeds, of which seventy-eight had come from a hundred and ten seeds, should be only ordinary mother plants. Although I could not immediately quite dis- cern much in them that was unusual and strange, yet I had already found a noticeable difference between the natural seeds and those pro- duced artificially, which let me doubt so much the less of the young plants grown therefrom not being true hybrids. I was finally completely convinced of it, when more than twenty of them which I had kept over winter, partly in the room and partly in a cold green-house, came into flower in the month of March just past. I was with much satisfaction aware, that not alone in the spread of the branches, in the position and color of the flowers throughout, they held precisely the mean between PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 43 the two natural species, but that with them especially also all the parts belonging to the flower, the anthers alone excepted, taken in comparison with those of the two natural plants, showed an almost geometrical pro- portion." {ib., pp. 30-1.) The anthers of the hybrid Nicotiana contained less pollen than those of the parents, and instead of having their regular elliptical form "they were in comparison quite irregular, shrivelled as though rubbed to pieces ; they contained almost nothing of a fluid material, and were, in a word, simply empty husks." {ib., p. 31.) Kolreuter then goes on to say : "The fertility of this new plant appeared to me, therefore, extremely questionable, and the results confirmed my suspicion completely ; for among the almost innumerable quantity of flowers there was not one to be found which had borne even a single seed, even though they had been immediately covered with a large quantity of their own pollen dust ; while on the other hand, with the two natural species, every capsule is accustomed to bear four or five hundred seeds. This plant is thus in the real sense a true, and, so far as it is known to me, the first botanical mule which has been produced by art." {ib., p. 31.) In this connection Kolreuter refers as follows to the supposed hybrid Tragopogon^ reported by Linnaeus to the Imperial Acad- emy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, and which bloomed in the bo- tanical garden at St. Petersburg in the spring of 1761, as being in his expression "only half a hybrid." "For the hybrid goat's-beard, which the celebrated Linnaeus considers in his new prize essay, is not a hybrid plant in the real sense, but at most only a half hybrid, and indeed in different degrees, as I will clearly and plainly demonstrate at another opportunity, with many reasons which appear in part from the nature and peculiarity of the composite flowers, and from certain experiments instituted upon the time of fer- tilization of the same ; in part from the structure of the above-mentioned presumed hybrid itself, which had been raised by me from seeds which Linnaeus had sent, together with his prize essay, to the Honorable Rus- sian Imperial Academe' of Sciences, and which have bloomed the past spring in the Academy's garden at St. Petersburg." {ib., p. 32.) The hybrid Nicotiana paniculata -.X rustica obtained by Kdl- reuter, he pollinated, in part with the pollen of paniculata and in part with that of rustica^ and obtained fertile seeds in both cases, but in lesser numbers than with the self-fertilized parents. Kol- reuter's conceptions regarding hybrid fertilization, and the pro- duction of what he refers to as a half hybrid appear in the next following pages. His conception is that from any plant, from 44 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL which, through fertilization with another, a complete hybrid can be produced, a mere "tincture," as it were, may likewise be transmitted, in the proportion in which its own pollen stands to that of the other that is also purporting to function as the male parent in the fertilization process. This "tincture," or supposed partial contribution of the female parent, through the agency of its own pollen, is presumed by Kolreuter to be (p. 34) the cause of the production of "half-hybrids." This conception of the effect of the pollen as a mass-effect, brought about through the secretion of fertilizing substance by the pollen grains, which was the more effective the greater the quantity of it, was the prevailing theory for some time after Kolreuter's day. Kolreuter's first "Vorlaufige Nachricht" closes with a brief discussion of six ex- periments which he conducted with regard to nectar-producing plants (pp. 34-7), and which need not be referred to here. The first "Fortsetzung" to the preceding appeared in 1763. The "Vorlaufige Nachricht" was dated September 1, 1761, the place of publication not appearing. The first "Fortsetzung" is dated at Calw, December 10, 1762. At this time Kolreuter appears in the publication as Professor of Natural History at Wiirtemberg. The preface opens with Kolreuter's expression of conviction, that from the experiments in the preceding report the sex of plants was most completely proved, as well as the theory that reproduction in plants resulted from the production of two kinds of fertilizing material. The "Fortsetzung" therefore begins with the statement : "To the production of every natural plant two similar fluid materials of different sort are demanded. The one of these is the male, the other the female." Since these materials are of different sort, or are different from each other in their nature, it is therefore easy to understand that the force or strength of the one must be different from that of the other. "From the union and commingling of these two materials, which oc- curs most intimately and in an orderly manner according to a definite relationship, there arises another of an intermediate sort, and which consequently also possesses an intermediate composite force, arisen from those two simple forces, just as through the union of an acid and an alkaline substance a third or intermediate salt originates." (p. 42.) It is worthy of mention that Kolreuter records, regarding his PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 45 first Nicotiana hybrid, its much more rapid growth, whereby it was distinguishable from its two parents, as he says, "from the germinating seed on to its complete flowering." (p. 32.) Kolreuter seems to have interpreted the phenomenon of the hybrid in a completely teleological way. The hybrid plant pro- ceeds in its development normally like any other plant. "Even in the case of the most completely infertile hybrid the keenest eye can discern no incompleteness, from the embryo up to flower forma- tion, and yet the most important character, fertility, is lacking, a circum- stance that would not be suspected from observation. But instead of an expected number of some 50,000 seeds, none are obtained, and more than a thousand flowers, one after another, are seen to fall, without leaving a single capsule behind." (ib., pp. 43-4.) "Certainly," he says, "this event is, for a scientific investigator, one of the most deserving of astonishment that has ever occurred upon the wide field of nature." {ib., p. 44.) The wonderful and unexpected thing, however, to Kolreuter's mind, lay not in the union of two materials, "which indeed were not destined for each other by the wise Creator," but rather in the fact "that precisely this plant, when it has reached the highest pitch of its completion, is not in condition to fulfill the final object toward which otherwise all the operations demanded for de- velopment appear to be directed, and, in all its apparent completeness, betrays the greatest incompletion that a plant can ever happen upon. This incompleteness consists chiefly in the total lack of good male and female fertilizing material (Saamen), and in the infertility naturally arising therefrom." {ib., p. 44.) Kolreuter's mind, however, reaches out into the conceived pre- existing harmony of nature, which must be preserved at any cost, and this apparent incompleteness becomes resolved into the completeness of an orderly-minded creative agency which abhors confusion of any kind, at least not of its own originating. He proceeds further : "if one regards this event, however, from the point of view of its consequences, then one will recognize with pleasure that this actual in- completeness is real completeness. What an astonishing confusion would not the peculiar and unchanged hybrid characters, and the continually retained fertility of such plants give rise to in Nature." (p. 44.) . . . "what evil and unavoidable consequences must these not draw after them*?" {ib., p. 44.) Kolreuter turns from the contemplation of this embarrassing picture, to raise what seemed to him a serious scientific question that appeared to be involved. 46 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "Experience teaches us," he says, "that from the union of two like- formed fluid fertilizing materials of different sorts a firm and organic body originates, and that every natural plant itself provides those two- fertilizing materials required for a new procreation, and especially the one of them, namely, the male, apparently in much larger measure than was necessary for its reproduction." {ib., p. 44.) On the other hand, according to Kolreuter's view, an artificial process seems to be quite impotent for fertilization purposes, or else it brings it about only in a very limited and incomplete way. This circumstance he holds to be one of the most complicated knots in the whole doctrine of reproduction, "to the solution of which all human understanding taken together might still perhaps be too weak." He concludes that: "I will hence not in the least break my head on it, but simply lay it down as a fundamental ex- perience when, later on, the question arises of the explanation of various remarkable characters of a few of the plants obtained from my experi- ments." (p. 45.) Thus concludes the theoretical or introductory portion of the "Fortsetzung." Of the experiments which follow, 18 are with species of Nicotiana^ one with Dianthus, one with Ketmia^ one with Leucojum^ and one with Hyoscyamus. Of the Nicotiana crosses, five are too complicated to be of genetic value, consisting either of crosses of one F^ hybrid with a different one, or of an F^^ with a cross between a species and another F-^. Nine of the crosses might be considered interesting from the genetic standpoint, being either crosses between species, selfing of F^'s or back crosses on an F^^ by one of the parents and vice versa. Kolreuter made, besides other crosses between species of Nico- tiana^ crosses between species of Ketmia^ pink {Dianthus)^ stocks (Matthiola), dogbane (Hyoscyamus) , and mullein (Verbascum). He ascertained the fact that, in general, only nearly related plants, and not always even these, can be crossed. He determined experimentally the fact that, if the stigmas of flowers are polli- nated at the same time by their own pollen and by pollen from another species, fertilization is effected by the former, which would account for the comparative rarity of "species hybrids" in nature. The cross Nicotiana rustica X paniculata was repeated, 24 plants resulting, which resembled in behavior those of the first PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 47 experiment. These, as well as the hybrids in the former case, were found, after most careful experimentation, to be in a slight degree fertile as to the egg-cells, but completely sterile as to the pollen. Kolreuter comments regarding this cross that, in size of the plants and number of flowers, the hybrids far exceed the rustica parent. Whether they exceed the paniculata parent in these respects, he was not prepared to state. In case of Nicotiaria paniculata X rustica and its reciprocal, the Fj hybrids resembled each other completely. In the case of the back-cross of rustica upon lustica X paniculata^ all the prog- eny are reported to have approached the type of the maternal parent, i.e., the F^ hybrid ; a few more, others less. The cross, A^. rustica X paniculata^ is reported as furnishing progeny more nearly resembling paniculata than in the original cross. It was found possible to cross A^ rustica X paniculata with A^ perennis, although the cross of percnnis with either rustica or paniculata failed. Kolreuter concludes that the continued self-pollination of hy- brids finally results in the re-appearance of the original parental forms. His ideas regarding fertilization are interesting. He thought, as has been stated, that a plant was formed by the fusion of two fluid materials of different sorts. "since these materials are of different sorts, or in their essence are different from each other, it is easy to comprehend that the strength ot one must be different from the strength of the other. From the union and commingling of these two materials, which occurs in the most inti- mate and orderly manner, according to a definite relationship, there originates another, which is of an intermediate sort, and which conse- quently also possesses an intermediate, compounded force, sprung from those two simple forces. . . . Upon this basis and its operative force, which, according to the different kinds of its twofold fertilizing ma- terial (Saamenstoff), must necessarily be different in the case of every different kind of living machine, rests the gradual, progressive forma- tion of the future plant, its particular organic structure, its specific nature whereby it is distinguished from^ all others, and the proportion of the fertilizing material demanded for a similar new reproduction and, in a word, all those completed conditions (products) which are required for the object to which it is designed." (1, p. 42.) . . . "All the movements and changes, which from the embryo to the time of flowering, take place in every such masterpiece of nature, appear to be directed simply to the great work of reproduction. They all aim at gradually liberating that compound material upon which they are based, and at dividing it again into the two original ground materials; or, 48 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL to speak more properly, to bring these latter themselves into a complete, and, especially from the one side, into masses of unlike size than were demonstrated from the preceding reproduction." (i, p. 43.) Kolreuter's "Zweite Fortsetzung" to the 'A'orlauiige Nach- richt," published in Leipzig in 1764, gives an account of 49 ex- periments, of which 29 were distinctly crossing experiments, the remainder being experiments involving the use of the plant's own pollen, simultaneously with that of another species. The species used in the crosses were as follows : Species Number of crosses Verbascum 4 Nicotiana 12 Dianthus 7 Hibiscus 2 Datisca 2 Mirabilis l Leucojum l ' Of the twelve Nicotiana crosses seven, and of the seven Dian- thus crosses four are compound. Of the four Verbascum crosses, each with the same female, but V. ith different male parents, it is reported that all were inter- mediate, neither the one nor the other of the parents having the preponderance. Concluding in his own mind that the live tobacco forms rus- tica, inajor, paniculata^ glutinosa^ and perennis, were simply va- rieties of the same species, these, he says : "l pollinated the past year (1762) reciprocally together, and obtained through this manifold combination always the most complete capsules," and the plants obtained from these seeds, "held in all parts the mean between their parents, and were just as fruitful as those could ever have been." (p. 118.) This fact was evidence to Kolreuter's mind that the five sup- posed "species" were merely varieties of the same natural species. Regarding crosses between {Nicotiana glutinosa X ^'- peren- nis) and (Nicotiana glutinosa X ^^- major fl. alb.) Kolreuter found that the plants were identical in type with those of the reciprocal cross. Of the former he says fp. 120) : "They did not come into full bloom, but one saw from their whole appearance otherwise that they were as like those of the reciprocal ex- periment, as one egg like another." Of the second cross he remarks : "So far as its resemblance is concerned, there was not the least differ- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 49 ence to be found between it and those of the reciprocal experiment." (p. 120.) Pursuing his conception that the activity of the pollen pro- duced a quantitative effect depending upon the amount and char- acter of the pollen employed in fertilization, Kolreuter instituted a series of experiments with Nicotiana species. He found that N. perennis^ pollinated with a small quantity of its own pollen, and a much larger amount of glutinosa produced plants wholly per- ennis, which had no character from glutinosa. Similarly A'', rus- tica^ pollinated in part with its own pollen, and also with pollen of paniculata and perenms, in equal proportions, produced plants which were all ordinary rustica, and had taken nothing from the other two. Another flower of N. rustica^ pollinated with equal portions of its own pollen and pollen of N. perennis^ gave plants which were ordinary rustica, without any trace of peren- nis. A flower of A'^. rustica, pollinated with "a very small quantity of its own pollen, and a much greater amount of the pollen of paniculata," produced "six true hybrids, of precisely the sort that one is accustomed to get from rustica 2 and paniculata S •" (p. 122.) Kolreuter investigated the probable nature of the stigmatic secretion, whether it were the female fertilizing substance or not. Removing the secretion from the stigmas of Nicotiana rustica with a piece of blotting paper, he pollinated the surface with its own pollen, and added the stigmatic secretion of A^ paniculata^ getting as a result six plants simply rustica. From another flower of the same plant, pollinated with its own pollen, to which the secretion from A^. mai. vulg. was added, he obtained four plants of ordinary rustica^ with none of the characters of the other species. A flower of A'', paniculata^ pollinated with its own pollen, to which the secretion of rustica had been applied, gave four ordi- nary paniculata plants. Upon the stigmas of a hybrid paniculata ? X rustica $ and another of rustica 5 X paniculata $ , polli- nated with its own pollen, with the addition of the stigmatic secre- tion of paniculata^ he obtained plants which all in appearance ap- proached more the paniculata parent. The result of all these experiments led Kolreuter to conclude : "That one would almost sooner have reason to hold the female secre- tion to be a mere innocuous conduction medium, than as a true fertilizing material." (p. 128.) 50 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL And again : "Hence I believed myself, by virtue of the contrary outcome of my experiments, to be justified rather in holding the oft-mentioned oily secretion for a conduction medium, than to set it up as a true fertiliza- tion substance (Saamen)." In all, 49 experiments are detailed in Kolreuter's "Zweite Fortsetzung," distributed over seven different genera, as follows: Nicotiana 30 Datura 2 Dianthus 8 Mirabilis 2 Verbascum 4 Leucojum 1 Hibiscus 2 Of the 30 Nicotiana experiments, eight were species-crosses ; nine, experiments with one or more kinds of pollen; seven, ex- periments to determine the nature of the stigmatic secretion ; two were F-^'s back-crossed with one of the parents, and four were compound crosses. The pollen and stigma experiments have been described in detail. The species-crosses involved the species pani- culata^ glutinosa^ rustica^ transylvamca^ and major ft. albo. There is nothing distinctly interesting in these crosses per se. In the case of paniculata X glutinosa it is stated that the hybrid combined the characters of the two parents in the most exact manner. ("Zeigte nebst den iibrigen Merkmalen offenbar an, dass sich die Natur der $ mit der Natur der 5 auf's genaueste vereinigt haben musste.") (p. 110.) Of the back-crosses on the Fj, of which two are reported, in neither case is the number of the progeny suffi- cient for generalization; being one, in the case of (A^. paniculata X rustica) X paniculata^ and seven in the case of (A'^. pani- culata X rustica) X rustica. The former cross is stated to have resembled the original paniculata parent. In the latter case, all seven more or less completely resembled the rustica parent, in this respect resembling the behavior of the ten offspring of the cross in Experiment 2 of the "Nachricht," [N. rustica X pani- culata) X rustica, all of which throughout approached the rustica parent, some more, some less. The compound crosses are not of essential genetic interest. Kolreuter reports the results of a curious experiment to deter- mine the possible neutral character of the stigmatic secretion. In 1760, he placed upon the still clean stigmas of a Ketinia species, "drops of different natural and artificial oils," deposited the pollen therein, and awaited the result; the flowers all fell off unfertilized. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 51 (p. 140.) In the spring of 1763 the experiment was repeated with a few other plants. When the stigmas of Nicotiana rustica showed here and there drops of the secretion, he spread almond oil over the surface with a fine brush, mixing it with the stigmatic secre- tion, and spreading the whole over the entire surface, then apply- ing a more than sufficient quantity of pollen. Pollination took place successfully. Upon four other flowers, he used hazel-nut oil, upon two, oil of jasmine, and upon four, linseed oil, with the same result. With "distilled or artificial oils" no fertilization took place, as also with animal fats and oils. The use of oil of both sweet and bitter almonds, in the case of Verbascum blattaria, re- sulted in fertilization. With pumpkins, however, the experiment failed, although, as he says: "the oil of almond had penetrated the ovary to over its half." (p. 142.) Kolreuter concludes, on the basis of these experiments, that the essential fertilizing ma- terial, issuing from the pollen grain, is the homogeneous fluid oily substance, and not the granular material. The fact that this portion of the pollen material, in his opinion, mingled freely with the added vegetable oils, and still penetrated to the ovary, fertil- ization following, was evidence, in his view, that both the fluid portion of the pollen exudate and the stigmatic secretion were alike oily substances, mixing freely with other oils of a vegetable nature. Kol renter's assumption of an exudation under pressure from the pollen grains of their contents lay of course at the basis of this conclusion. He knew nothing of the growth of the pollen tube, the character of which precluded any admixture of the con- tents of the pollen grains with the stigmatic secretion or anything else. However, considering the lack of morphological knowledge, Kol renter's experiment may well be regarded as in every sense scientific in spirit, and in the manner in which the conclusions were drawn. Of the eight experiments in crossing species of Dianthus, three were species or variety-crosses, three were back-crosses upon F^ hybrids, one a self-fertilized Fj, and one a compound cross. From the variations in type obtained in two back-crosses — (Dianthus chinensis X carthusianoruni), and (Z). chinensis X carthusia- noruin) X carthusianorum, — Kolreuter concludes that: "The union of the fertilizing materials in the production of hybrids in the first descending or ascending degree does not take place by far 52 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL with the same regularity and uniformity, as in natural plants and the first hybrid originally produced therefrom'' (p. 144.) (Italics inserted.) This sentence is quoted in order to give as clear a picture as possible of the attitude of a scientific mind of that time upon the subject of the so-called "increase in variability" in hybrid genera- tions after the first. Kolreuter found that although the Chinese pink and the Car- thusian could be successfully crossed, it was extremely difficult to cross the Chinese with the garden pink. "One will, among a hundred flowers, often scarcely find ten, which are actually fertilized, and which contain one, or at most two to three perfect seeds." (p. 150.) An interesting genetic fact was ascertained in a cross between Dianthus chinensis X ^« hortensis, in which the latter had "double" flowers, and in Dianthus chinensis ft, simpl. X D. chi- nensis ft. quadrupL, the result being the dominance of the mul- tiple-petalled corolla in the F^. The statement is briefly made re- garding the former cross (p. 152), with respect to the hybrid: "its flowers were all reduplicate, and consisted commonly of 15-20 quite carmine-red leaves ; from which one plainly sees, that the pollen of doubled flowers possesses the character of reduplicating simple ones >vhich are pollinated with it." This statement is extremely interesting because of the germ of genetic thought which it manifests in the mind of Kolreuter. From the second cross above mentioned, he obtained nine plants, among which the most bore quadrupled — i.e., twenty-petalled flowers, (p. 157.) Kolreuter remarks, "this experiment thus confirms that one which has already been noticed above, p. 28, XL Expt." The thing that immediately suggests itself to Kolreuter's mind through these experiments is the opportunity offered for improv- ing poor single flowers by crossing with doubles. In the case of a wild plant growing in the neighborhood of Calw, Dianthus plumarius^ Kolreuter remarks upon an extraor- dinary condition found by him in the pollen of occasional plants of the species, in which the pollen was of a dark-brown to purple- red color, the grains being much smaller than natural. On polli- nating a Chinese pink with this pollen he obtained no seeds, the flower remaining open for ten days. But on pollinating with the ordinary whitish-grey pollen, the plants closed in twenty-four PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 53 hours, and he got as perfect seed-capsules and seeds as if he had pollinated with the plant's own pollen. Inasmuch as Kolreuter reports this type of pollen also as being present in Saponaria officinalis and in Gypsophila fastigiata, it seems probable that he was dealing with a pathological condition, due possibly to a fungus infection. At jill events he reports that the shedding of this pollen took place at the same time and in the same manner as in these plants generally. It is interesting to note his comparison of the abnormal pollen grains in question, in respect to color, form and size with the smut of oats, and of other grains. The second "Fortsetzung" closes with brief accounts of crosses of Hibiscus manvhot with H. vitifolius and its reciprocal ; Datura stramonium with D. taiula and its reciprocal ; Mirabilis jalapa red-flowered X yellow-flowered and reciprocal ; and Leu- cojum red-flowered X a white-flowered variety. With respect to the Hibiscus cross, it is only of interest to note the intermediac}^ of the four plants from each cross and their com- plete resemblance to one another. In the Datura cross between stramonium with white flowers, and tatula with violet flowers, the hybrids from the two reciprocals, five and thre'e, respectively, were completely alike. The purple color did not dominate. Kol- reuter says : "Their flowers had a whitish color playing a little into the violet; the flower-tubes marked with five violet stripes, and the others sky- blue." (p. 161.) In the Mirabilis reciprocals, the color "in the case of both the hybrid varieties was of mixed red and yellow. The flowers played into orange-yellow." (p. 161.) In the Leucojum red X white cross, the six hybrid plants all had whitish-violet flowers. Kolreuter's "Dritte Fortsetzung" is dated from Karlsruhe, December 26, 1765. The memoir opens with a brief statement to the effect that, after his success in 1762 at Sulz on the Neckar, in the production of various hybrid plants, he had experienced still greater success in 1763 at Calw, in obtaining, in addition to fertile crosses with four species of Verbascum, several other fertile combinations in the same genus, involving chiefly the re- ciprocal crossing of the species native to the locality. The seeds from these crosses were grown at Karlsruhe in 1764, and came 54 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL into flower in the same year. Out of the 65 crosses reported in the third 'Tortsetzung," the Verbascum crosses numbered 18, and involved the species phoeniceum^ Thapsus^ lychnites, nigrum, hlattaria and phlomoides. All of the Verbascum crosses proved sterile. The crosses Lych- nites fl. alb. X phoeniceum, Blattaria fl. flav. X nigrum, Blat- taria fl. flav. X phoeniceum, Blattaria fl. flav. X Lychnites fl. alb., Thapsus X nigrum, Lychnites fl. alb. X Thapsus, were carried on reciprocally, and are interesting as being identical in the reciprocal crosses, although their sterility showed them to be species-hybrids rather than variety-crosses. In describing the cross Verbascum blattaria fl. flav. X Verbas- cum lychnites fl. flav., Kolreuter discusses the question, why one or the other of the previously described hybrid plants should not have sometimes arisen in the wild state, or, if such have not arisen, wherein the obstacle lay for their production, in the case of plants, which, for so many thousands of years, had lived in proximity to one another. He remarks upon the fact that neither in the older nor the later botanical writings is there a description of any hybrid plant of this genus having arisen in the wild. The essential reason, Kolreuter concludes, for the absence of such hy- brids, lies in their total or very marked infertility. Concerning Linnaeus' hybrid of Verbascum Lychnites X Thapsus, he ex- presses no doubt as to the actual hybrid origin of the plant, in view of the sterility of the plant, and the fact that the parents had grown for years together in the same plot. Kolreuter concludes then that the principle still holds, which was laid down in the "Vorlaufige Nachricht," that, in the natural state of things and under the ordinary set of circumstances, hybrid plants are with difficulty produced or can be produced in nature. Admitting, he says, that a botanist should have the fortune to find a true hybrid plant in the field, the question yet remained whether such an accident could have arisen in a region where the natural conditions had remained entirely undisturbed directly or indirectly. For, he says, "true wilderness as it comes from the hand of Nature is one thing ; a field, free, but in respect to a hundred things often very much altered by the hand of man, is another." (p. 193.) Kolreuter goes on to remark upon the apparent fact that the PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 55 more rapid growth, the accelerated, earlier, and prolonged time of flowering, the development of young shoots in autumn from the roots, as well as from the stem, and a longer duration of the plant, are to be reckoned among the general characteristics of hybrids, (p. 193.) "it is very difficult," he says, "to assume a valid reason for the en- hanced vegetative vigor before flowering. The continuation of the same after flowering, on the other hand, might be explained from the fact that these plants cannot, like the natural ones, be exhausted and impoverished through the development of the seed." (p. 194.) With respect to the matter of increased rate of growth in hy- brids, Kolreuter makes the following interesting and rather sur- prising remark : "l would wish that I or another were so fortunate as to obtain a hybrid of trees, which, in respect to the utilization of their wood, might have a great economic influence. Perhaps such trees among other good characteristics would also have these, that, if the natural ones required for their full growth, for example, a hundred years, they would reach it in half this time. At least I do not see why they should behave differently in this respect from other hybrid plants." (p. 194.) Ten further crosses of Nicofiana are reported in the third "Fortsetzung," but inasmuch as all but two are compound crosses, they furnish no data of importance. The two remaining are ( A''. paniculata X rustica) X rustica and (N. rustica X pciniculata) X rustica^ i.e., back-crosses upon an F^, as they would now be designated, or, in Kolreuter's terminology, hybrids in the descend- ing degree, i.e., hybrids on the way toward a return to one of the parents. However, no data are given of present genetic value. Of the remaining crosses described, 29 are Dianthus crosses, the species used being barhatus^ chinensis, brabetisis, carthusia- norum^ superbus^ deltoides, armeria, plumarius, glaucus and vari- ous forms of the garden pink, presumably also plumarius, but referred to here as "'hortensis.'" The Dianthus crosses are distrib- uted as follows : Species and variety-crosses 12 F^ back crosses 5 Compound crosses 10 Fj selfs 2 Kolreuter remarks as to the cross Dianthus barbatus X chinen- sis that, between the eighteen plants from this cross and those from the reverse cross ("Fortsetz. der Vorlauf. Nachr.," p. 44), there was to be found no noticeable difference. Reference to the page in question, however, gives the cross there reported as Dian- 56 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL thus chinensis y^carthusianorum^ so that Kolreuter is apparently in error in his citation. Of the cross Dianthus hortensis \ chinen- sis, three plants were produced. Kolreuter states: "Throughout, there was, between all these plants and those of the reverse cross, both in what pertained to the whole external structure, as well as also in respect to their inner characteristics, no essential difference to be found." (p. 209.) The reciprocal cross is reported, not in the third "Fortsetzung," but as Experiment 40 in the second. In regard to a cross of Dian- thus chinensis X ^- superbus, a carmine-red form with double flowers, it is stated of the hybrids, twenty in number, that : "Throughout, these plants held in all details the mean between the female and male, except that they had bloomed earlier and longer." (p. 212.) Most of the hybrids were infertile as to their pollen, even when abundantly close-pollinated. The egg-cells showed on the other hand a limited amount of fertility, giving, when open-pollinated from other species in the neighborhood, not seldom capsules with generally two to four seeds, and when hand-pollinated from these, six to eight seeds. So far as the doubling of the petals is con- cerned, it may be assumed that the hybrids were on the whole intermediate, since, as Kolreuter says: "One sees plainly that the female contribution in respect to this cir- cumstance is of a like activity and character with the male." (p. 213.) Of a cross Dianthus hortensis X harhatus it is stated (p. 216), "it showed quite plainly, that it had taken an equal share from both natures." From a cross between a double Dianthus chinensis and a native wild species, D. armeria, Kolreuter obtained ten plants, of which he says : "Among all these hybrids, there was not a single one with simple flowers, but all either with double, even more strongly reduplicated, or quite doubled very decorative flowers ; a circumstance which again places out of all doubt the activity of the female in respect to this point." (p. 222.) These hybrids were in the highest degree infertile as to the egg-cells, although exposed throughout the summer to pollina- tion from various other natural species in the neighborhood, and even when pollinated most carefully by hand, with pollen from the male or the female parent or from other pinks, setting not a PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 57 single capsule. Of a cross between a Dianthus plumarius, which Gmelin had brought from Siberia, a plant with snow-white fringed petals, and D. chinensis^ a plant with single flowers, unf ringed, scarlet-red, with black-red circle, it is stated : "in size, as generally in all details, they showed exactly the mean be- tween those of the male and female." (p. 224.) From a cross between Dianthus harhatus and chinensis selfed, three plants were produced, all different from one another. To Kolreuter's mind the matter is regarded thus : "So much in the meantime is quite clear, that the self-fertilization of such hybrids must go on dissimilarly, and not in an orderly manner, since it even appears as though thereby sometimes a basis were laid for misbirths, as is manifested by, the dwarf stature of the second plant of the present, and of the two hybrids of the thirty-seventh experiment." (P- 233.) Kolreuter states that a no less amount of difference showed itself among a few plants of the reciprocal cross, to which he refers as being reported in the second "Fortsetzung," Sec. 26, p. 106. The reference cited, however, is to the selling of a cross between Diaiithus chinensis X carthusianorum. Kolreuter also states (p. 236) that he had previously taken the complete similarity of hybrids in reciprocal crosses, as an infal- lible indication of the equilibrium existing between the two fer- tilization elements, but that one must take this principle in a limited sense. The similarity of reciprocal crosses proves incon- trovertibly, that in both cases throughout, the same proportion existed in the mixture of the fertilization elements, but not at all that in every particular case, in respect to mass or activity, an equal amount of each is used in fertilization. As for example, in crossing a blue with a yellow color, a third or green color is produced in a certain definite degree, whether the blue is mixed with the yellow or the yellow with the blue. "This green color," he says, "will not exactly, however, on this ac- count, hold completely the mean between the two ground colors, and consequently be distinguishable from that which comes out when one has mixed ten parts of each with the other. In this connection one must, however, pre-suppose that both ground colors are of like activity, for if, for example, the yellow were by one-tenth more active than the blue, yet nevertheless in the given case, irrespective of the unlike proportion in the mass, a medium color would come out, to which each of these ground colors according to its activity contributed equally much." (P- 237.) 58 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL The remainder of the crossing experiments reported upon in Kolreuter's third "Fortsetzung" are as follows: A cross between Datura ferox ft. alb. and D. tatula fl. viol., a back-cross of Mira- bilis jalapa (yellow), upon M. jalapa red X yellow. A reciprocal cross is reported between Cheiranthus (Matihiola) incana and Ch. annuus, between Sida cristata minor X major; Cucurbita of a small round variety with few, small seeds, by a large Cucurbita pepo, and a cross between Aquilegia vulgaris X canadensis and its reciprocal. In the Datura cross, involving purple flower-color in D. tatula, the flowers of the hybrid are reported as being "whitish-violet." The Mirabilis back-cress is reported as giving the yellow color in a stronger degree than in the ¥^. The Cheiranthus (Matthiola) cross is interesting because of the genuine genetic purpose for which it was undertaken. Kolreuter remarks: "since the essential difference which one believes to exist between winter and summer stocks always seemed to me suspicious ; I therefore concluded to completely decide this hitherto doubtful matter through the experiment of crossing." (p. 200.) From these crosses, he raised in 1764, twelve plants from the first, and six from the reciprocal cross. These were in all respects like one another. Their intermediate character showed itself espe- cially in the fact that they began to bloom earlier and more vigorously than the winter stocks are accustomed to do in the first year, and on the other hand brought their flowers out later, and not in the complete numbers that the summer stocks are accustomed to do. The Sida cross is reported as giving a hybrid intermediate in color, form, and size of all the parts, between the two parents. The Cucurbita cross likewise gave a complete intermediate. An interesting discussion follows of the sensitivity of the sta- mens in flowers of Opuntia, Berberis, and Cistus. The last pages of the third "Fortsetzung" (252-63) are taken up with a discus- sion of further experiments on the pollination and fertilization process. "since there are some people," he says, "who have brought into doubt the organic structure of the pollen, assumed by me in the 'Vorlauf. Nachr.' Sec. 5, I therefore hold it as my duty to help them out of their dream in this respect, and to give a somewhat closer explanation of this matter." (p. 252.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 59 Kolreuter then proceeds again to a detailed description of what is now known to be the exine. The fire-lily {Lilium bulbiferum) is taken as the type for discussion. The pollen grains of this species, under "moderate magnification," appear, as he says, to have a shagreen-like surface, as though covered with small pa- pillae. With a "stronger magnification, one sees, instead of the papillae, a net-like structure." By pressing the dry pollen grains gently together between two thin sheets of mica, so that the material contained in them is expelled, and bringing them under the microscope, he says : "One will see their empty and' transparent skins entirely interwoven with vascular or nerve-like threads, which are bound together, and represent an irregular net with unlike angular 'eyes.' These fibres, how- ever, never cut through one another, but make, even where they come together, no knots, but anastomose as it were amongst one another; and therein is this net-like structure wholly different from an actual net." (P- 253-) Such is Kolreuter's final description of the ridges and reticula- tions on the exine, which he took for a sort of fibres penetrating its tissue. If these fibres therefore, he says, represent sap or air-vessels, the sap or air must have free access or passage from one branch to another. Other species of Lilium are stated to have the same structure, as also the pollen of Agave americana and many species of Orchis. From observation of these and others he concluded that, in a very large number of species, on the pollen, which on account of its small size and other characteristics showed scarcely a trace of "organic structure," there were still present similar structures to those in the species indicated. The inner coat of the pollen grain is described so far as it shows itself in the form of the pollen tubes emerging through the germination pores. The germination of the pollen grains, so far as Kolreuter observed it, or was able to follow it, is described as follows. In the case of Scabiosa succisa^ he gives the following 'account : The white, smooth, roundish pollen grains, as soon as they are placed in water, give off a great quantity of a pale, sulphur-yellow oil, gradually swell with the absorbed water, and soon thereafter, from three equidistant weaker places in the wall, send out, ordi- narily, three conical, membranous plugs, which are immediately to be distinguished from the outer, hard, and opaque shell of 6o PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL the pollen grain by their transparency, and their uncommonly thin and uniform substance. As these plugs or horns gradually arise, one sees also the absorbed water, together with a part of the granular material, press into them and stretch them to burst- ing. They scarcely reach a length amounting to the small diam- eter of the pollen grain, before a slit appears at one side of the base, and in a moment the mixed material, which has already entered the plug, pours forcibly out of the slit, the pollen grain noticeably shrinks together, and the remaining two plugs with- draw almost wholly into the pollen grain, or at least noticeably diminish in size. Sometimes, instead of the three horns or plugs, only two or even only one makes its appearance. The process is similarly described for the pollen grains of Dipsacus fullo?iU7n, Kiiautia orientalis, Linnaea borealis^ as also for species of Gera- nium. Kolreuter accurately describes the germination-pores of the pollen grains as thin places in the coat. If his observations require correction, it is nevertheless well to note their accuracy within their own category, and within the observational limits then pos- sible. The third "Fortsetzung" concludes with an extremely careful and interesting natural history account of the sequence of events in the pollination of the stigmas of Hibiscus manihot. "At about nine in the morning on a clear, warm day," (of July 1759), he says, "a flower of the species named opened. Its four carmine-red pistils stood upright but close together. The whitish anthers opened gradually, and showed in part their pale, sulphur-yellow and still opaque pollen grains. The knobby dark-red stigmas, which hitherto had remained still quite dry, began, from their long, fine and pointed papillae, to secrete the female moisture, and acquired thereby a glisten- ing, as though they had been painted over with a varnish, or had been saturated with a fine oil. I thereupon placed upon them by means of a delicate brush a limited quantity of the still opaque pollen grains. Soon thereafter these acquired also a glistening appearance, and together with this, a transparency which they had previously not yet had, be- neath their dull appearance. The glistening of the stigmas increased ever more and more, from the moisture which heaped itself upon them ; and the pollen grains borne upon them became, finally, one after the other, so clear and transparent, that the purple-red color of the papillae lying beneath them appeared very plainly through them. During the time, however, when they reached the highest degree of ripeness, they already began to diminish a little in size. Gradually they lost also their transparency again, became ever smaller, and appeared imper- ceptibly to acquire wrinkles. At last they became very small, shrunk gradually together, lost all transparency and dried out. All these changes took place also at the same time with the other pollen grains remaining PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 61 upon the knobs of the stigmas. In the meanwhile, the stigmas had grad- ually withdrawn from one another, drawn outward, and finally turned back on their outer halves against the base of the flower. Their glisten- ing effect disappeared again gradually with their moisture, and they became finally covered by the closing and wilting petals." (p. 262.) The above is given in full for the sake of its natural history interest, as a type of observation none too common, and for the sake of showing what Kolreuter's spirit was at its best. The graphic, narrative, and even poetic style of the account should render it a classic among natural history observations. This closes an attempt, extensive and somewhat detailed, to give as complete and exact a presentation of the Kolreuter material as possible. If the account is somewhat disproportionately extended, it is nevertheless desirable to have the data from Kolreuter's slightly difficult and sometimes a trifle obscure German rendered as ac- cessible as possible in English. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Kolreuter^ Joseph Gottlieb. (a) Vorlaufige Nachricht von einigen das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffenden Versuchen und Beobachtungen, nebst Fortsetzungen 1, 2, und 3 (1761-66). W. Pfeffer, in Ostwald's Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, No. 41. Leipzig, 1893. (b) Historic der Versuche iiber das Geschlecht der Pflanzen; No. 17 in Mikan's Opuscula Botanici Argumenti. Prag, 1797- Note: From 1770-1775, thirty-one articles by Kolreuter, chiefly on zool- ogical subjects, appeared in the "Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae" (Vols. XV-XX, inc.). Of these, one only (in Vol. XX) was upon hybrid plants. In the "Acta Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae," 1777-1782, appeared seven articles by Kol- reuter on hybrid plants, and in the "Nova Acta" of the same Academy, 1783-1796 (Vols. I, III, XI, XII, XIIl), five further papers were published on the subject of plant hybrids. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to secure access 'to the St. Petersburg papers of Kolreuter in time for their inclusion in the present volume. 2. Sprengel, Christian Konrad. Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur Im Bau und in der Be- fruchtung der Blumen. (1793), ed. Paul Knuth. In Ost- wald'^ Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, No. 48, 4 vols. Leipzig, 1894. CHAPTER 111 9. Miscellaneous Experiments Regarding Sex in Plants. CAMERARIUS and Kolreuter represent the two chief land- marks in the history of plant breeding and genetics up to 1766. While these were the only investigators whose direct contributions to our knowledge of sex in plants, or of heredity in the plant organism, were extensive or fundamental, it is of interest to know that the hrst person who is reported to have actually crossed plants artificially, was an Englishman named Thomas Fairchild, who, according to Richard Bradley, Professor of Botany in Cambridge University, 1724-1732, (1) in 1719 crossed Dianthus barbatus L. ( Sweet-William), with pollen of the Carnation {Dia?ithus caryophyllus L.). The cross in question was still known in gardens one hundred years later as "Fair- child's Sweet-William." Nevertheless, as Focke says (2, p. 430): "This success in artificial fertilization was never utilized for science, nor does it appear to have given gardeners any stimulus to further investigations." It is possible that the first conception of the function of the stamens of the flowers as the source of the male fertilizing ma- terial is ascribable to an Englishman, Sir Thomas Millington (1628-1704). Millington was a physician by education, B.A., Cambridge, 1649; M.A., 1657; Fellow of All Souls College, Ox- ford, 1659. He is known as having taken part in the scientific meetings which gave rise to the Royal Society, of which he was an original member. He became Fellow of the College of Physi- cians in 1672, and was Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford from 1675 to his death in 1704. In a lecture on the anatomy of flowers, said to have been read by Nehemiah Grew before the Royal Society, November 6, 1676, the latter is quoted as follows: Plate XX. Sir Thomas Millington, 1628-1704. Sedleian Professor of Natural History of Oxford (1675-17C4). 64 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "In discourse hereof with our Learned Savilian (Sedleian), Professor sir Thomas Millington, he told me, he conceived, That the Attire (Stammens) doth serve, as the Male, for the Generation of the Seed. I immediately reply'd That I was of the same Opinion." The date of this supposed lecture was six years earlier than Grew's "Anatomy of Plants" in 1682, in which the statement is repeated (4b,' 171) in almost identical words, and eighteen years before the publication of Camerarius' "De Sexu Plantarum Epis- tola." ^ However, the lack of experimental data to support the conclusion gives the incident historical rather than scientitic value, except for whatever influence it may have had upon later investi- gations in the subject. Richard Bradley's conceptions on the subject of sexuality in plants seem, according to his own statement in his "New Improve- ments of Planting and Gardening," to have been derived from a certain Robert Balle, likewise a member of the Royal Society. It appears from Bradley's account, that he derived further sugges- tions in the matter from Moreland's communication to the Royal Society in 1703. (8.) Bradley's account follows: "The first hint of this secret [that every plant contains in itself male and female powers] was communicated to me several years ago by a worthy member of the Royal Society, Robert Balle, Esq. ; who had this notion for above thirty years, that plants had a mode of generation ^ The statement that Grew delivered an address before the Royal So- ciety, November 6, 1676, or, according to Logan, November 9 (p. 64), requires modification. A search through the volumes of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for the years 1676-77 reveals no address by Grew on the subject, or containing the quotation referred to. An in- quiry of the office of the Royal Society was responded to by a letter from the Assistant-Secretary (October 31, 1927) as follows: "The supposed quotation from a paper by Grew seems certainly at fault. We trace no such paper in the Philos;;phical Transactions. There was no meeting on November 6, 1676. There was a meeting on Novem- ber 9, and at that meeting Grew gave a Lecture on Flowers. This seem» never to have appeared in print before the publication of his 'Anatomy of Plants' in 1682. But the lecture was ordered to be 'registered' and we have it copied in MS in vol. 5 of our 'Register Book' series. We have glanced through the copy page by page (there are 10 pages of it) but we failed to trace the statement you quote : 'In discourse with . . .' On the face of it we should say that that statement appeared only in the published volume of the 'Anatomy of Plants,' 1682." In a previous letter (October 8, 1926), from the office of the Royal Society, it is stated: "All the Society did in the present case of Grew's communications was to desire him 'to cause them to be printed together in one volume.' " The first authentic reference, therefore, to the matter, must be taken to be Grew's publication in his "Anatomy of Plants," pub- lished in 1682. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 65 somewhat analogous to that of animals. The light which I received from this gentleman was afterward further explained by another learned gentleman of that Society, Mr. Samuel Moreland, who in 'Philos, Trans.,' Number 287, Anno 1703, has given us to understand how the dust of the Apices in flowers [i.e., the male sperm] is conveyed into the uterus or vasculum seminalis of a plant, by which means the seeds therein contained are impregnated. I then made it my business to search after this truth, and have had good fortune enough to bring it to demonstra- tion by several experiments; since which, a gentleman of Paris had printed something of the same nature, in the 'Hist, de I'Acad. des Sciences,' for the year 1711 and 1712, which were published about two years ago." Bradley's account of the Fairchild crossing experiment is as follows : "Moreover, a Curious Person may, by this knowledge, produce such rare Kinds of Plants as have not yet been heard of, by making choice of two plants for his Purpose as are near alike in their parts, but chiefly in their Flowers or Seed Vessels; for example the Carnation and Sweet-william are in some respects alike, the Farina of the one will impregnate the other, and the Seed so enliven'd will produce a Plant differing from either, as may now be seen in the Garden of Mr. Thomas Fairchild of Hoxton, a plant neither Szveet-William nor Carna- tion, but resembling both equally, which was raised from the Seed of a Carnation that had been impregnated by the Farina of the Sweet- William." (pp. 20-3.) Two years earlier, Bradley himself (1. pp. 20-5'), had removed the anthers from the flowers of twelve tulips which he had planted in a remote place in his garden, and had discovered that they pro- duced no seeds, while some four hundred tulips, planted elsewhere in the garden and left intact, produced seeds freely. The account of the experiment is given as follows : "l shall now proceed to what I call the Demonstrative Part of this System. I made my first Experiment upon the Tulip, which I chose rather than any other Plant because it seldom misses to produce Seed. Several years ago I had the Conveniency of a large Garden, wherein there was a considerable Bed of Tulips in one Part, containing about 400 Roots ; in another Part of it very remote from the former, were Twelve Tulips in perfect Health. At the first opening of the twelve, which I was very careful to observe, I cautiously took out of them all their Apices, before the Farijia Fecundans was ripe or any ways appear'd. These Tulips, being thus castrated, bare no Seed that Sum- mer, while on the other hand every one of the 400 Plants which I had let alone produced seed. . . . " 'Tis from this accidental Coupling that proceeds the Numberless Varieties of Fruits and Flowers which are raised every Day from Seed. The yellow and black Auricula's which were the first we had in Eng- land, coupling with on^ another, produced Seed which gave us other varieties, which again mixing their qualities, in like manner, has af- forded us by little and little the numberless Variations which we see 66 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL at this Day in every curious Flower Garden; for I have saved the Seeds of near an hundred plain Auricula s, whose flowers were of one Colour, and stood remote from others, and the Seed I remember to have produced no Variety; but on the other hand, where I have saved the Seed of such plain Auricula's as have stood together and were dif- fering in their colours, that Seed has furnished me with great Varieties, different from the Mother Plants." In 1731, Philip Miller, in the first edition of his "Gardeners' Dictionary" (7), reported upon a repetition of Bradley's experi- ment with tulips, and also upon an experiment with spinach, in which plants of the two sexes, grown apart, resulted in the pro- duction of seeds devoid of embryos. Miller (1692-1771), was Governor to the Apothecaries' Com- pany, from 1722 to 1770, at the Chelsea Gardens near London. In 1724, he published "The Gardeners' and Florists' Diction- ary, or a Complete System of Horticulture," of which Linnaeus said, "non erit lexicon hortulanorum sed botanicorum." The work went through eight editions during his lifetime. It is said of it that while before its appearance not more than a thousand species of plants were in cultivation, at his death there were more than five thousand. He was a correspondent of Linnaeus, who visited the Chelsea Garden several times, when in England in 1736. The seventh edition of "The Gardeners' Dictionary," in 1759, con- tained twice as many plants as the first edition, and adopted the nomenclature of Linnaeus. The account here given of Miller's ex- periment is taken from the 1759 edition, from the chapter (un- paged) entitled "Generation." "I shall therefore conclude with mentioning a few Experiments of my own, which I communicated to Dr. Patrick Blair, which he improved as Proof of his opinion of Effluvia, and Mr. Bradley also, as a Proof of the Fari?ia entering the Uterus in Substance, and leave the curious En- quirer to determine on that Side of the Question, to which Reasoning and Experiment shall influence him. "I separated the male Plants of a Bed of Spinach from the female ; and the Consequence was that the Seed did swell to the usual Bigness, but when sown it did not grow afterwards ; and searching into the Seed I found it wanted the Punctum Vitae (or what Geoffrey calls the Germen). "I set twelve Tulips by themselves, about six or seven yards from any other and, as soon as they blew, I took out the Stamina (with their Summits) so very carefully, that I scattered none of the male Dust; and about two days afterwards I saw Bees working on a bed of tulips, where I did not take out the stamina ; and when they came out they were loaded with the farina or male dust on their legs and bodies; and I saw them fly into the tulips where I had taken out the stamina, Plate XXI. Philip Miller, 1691-1771. 68 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL and when they came out, I found they had left behind them sufficient to injj)regn^te those flowers, for they bore good ripe seeds which after- ward§; grew." In 1739 appeared a small memoir of thirteen pages, by James Logan, "Supreme Justice and President of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania in America." This memoir, published in Latin at Leiden and entitled "De Plantarum Generatione Experimenta et Meletemata," contains an account of the author's experiments on the fertilization of Indian corn, and his conclusions on the subject of plant fertilization in general. After a description of the plant, and its manner of flowering, he says: "On -the ear appear very beautiful ranks of grains, generally eight, often even ten, and more rarely indeed twelve, and even sixteen I have seen. In any such row, the grains are 40 more or less, which in their rudimentary stage, when the spike is still tender, may rightly be called ova, and upon each ovum arises a slender, delicate, white filament which is also hoUow, and is like a silken thread. These individual threads break through seriatim, between the rows, from the beginning to the ulterior extremity, where, protruding themselves from the leaves which protect the whole ear in a bundle, they appear prominently in the air, in color more often in this prominent part whitish, sometimes indeed, according to the various kind of plant, yellowish, reddish, or purplish ; andi-these filaments, as, I suspected, are presently to be understood as the^true styles of the ova." The. experiment in fertilization is described as follows : "Therefore, setting about experiments with this plant, in my urban garden, 40 feet in width and about 80 feet in length, from the different corners, having heaped up little hills, according to the method of sow- ing, in the latter part of the month of April, I planted four or five grains of seed (in each). At the beginning of August when the plants had grown to their proper size, and the tassels (cirri) on the summit, and the ears (spicae) on the stalk, had fully appeared, I cut off from one hill all these tassels from within : in others, however, the tassels being intact, I cut off the whole bundle of filaments or styles from -. certain ears, having gently freed them from the enclosing leaves, and covered them again, and from others cut one-fourth, and others left / intact. Another ear, before the bundle (of styles) should get to the light, I gently wrapped in a light, soft cloth of Indian or Chinese linen, called by us 'muslin,' and so loosely that not the least injury should happen to the vegetation, so that, on account of the lightness of the cloth, the ear should enjoy the benefit of the sun, the air and the showers, but that on account of the woolly cloth it would be exposed to no approach of the pollen. Four hills I left whole and intact, and as many of the others also as possible, in that condition which I have stated, I permitted to come to the time of maturity, (pp. 8-9.) "Towards October, it was seen that in the first hill, which had been completely detasselled, although the ears were satisfactory to the eye, not a single grain was matured, except in a single ear of greater size, PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 69 which projected higher up, upon a stalk facing the adjoining hill, on the side toward the prevailing winds. On this ear some twenty grains matured. "in those (ears) from which I had removed the styles," he states, "exactly as many seeds were found, as I had left styles intact; in those I had wrapped in cloth, not a single one. In the void or empty ova nothing except a dry skin was seen." (p. 9.) Plate XXII. James Logan, 1674-1751. 70 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Logan therefore concludes : "From these experiments, instituted and carried out by me with the utmost accuracy, as also from several by others, it holds that this pollen, evolved from the anthers, is the true masculine semen, and is most clearly entirely necessary to the fecundation of the uterus and seeds, which fact nevertheless all the centuries concealed up to ours." (P- 9.) The care with which the experiments were carried out, is suffi- ciently attested by the remark (p. 16) : "After these experiments were undertaken, I scarcely permitted myself to be absent from these investigations, either through the state of my health or by business." Millington is referred to in the following words: "Worthy is therefore that Discoverer of this Arcana of Nature, whose memory should be perpetually celebrated. He seems to have been Thomas Millington, an English Knight, Savillian professor in his time before or about the year 1676. For thus reported Grew in an address before the Royal Society, held the 9th of November of that year. Malpighius in- deed, so far as I know, nowhere thinks of any use for it (i.e., the pollen). Grew himself suspected the pollen to be necessary for fecundation, but not that it entered the uterus ; but twenty or more years after him, Samuel Moreland, also an Englishman, affirmed that it descended to the uterus itself, through the canaliculi of the style." (p. 6.) (See antCi pp. 62-64.) 10. Gleditsch's Pollination Experiments with the Palm. In 1751, Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, Director of the Berlin Bo- tanical Garden, published an account of an experiment in the crossing of a species of palm {Chamaerops huinilis), of which Sachs says in his "History of Botany" : "This treatise, in point of its scientific tone and learned handling of the question, is the best that appeared between the time of Camerarius and that of Kolreuter." (9.) Gleditsch's account, as reported in the "Histoire de I'Academie des Sciences et Belles Lettres," 1749, begins as follows: "The theory of sex of plants, which," he says, "has been so long and vigorously debated by modern naturalists, is at present supported upon incontestable foundations, which are experience and reason. Things which the greater number of physicians regarded formerly as ridiculous and imaginary are proved today by the most simple experiments, and with so much evidence that there no longer remains the least place for all the objections capable of being formed against this system, or for all the jests with which it could be loaded." (5a, p. 103.) It is not, he adds, that there are not more who still doubt the PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 71 existence of true sex in plants, "but their number is very small, and their arguments do not appear to merit any response." "Leaving all these disputes to one side," he continues, "I have only been interested in acquiring a full proof of this theory ; and to this end, for several years, I have made experiments on plants of every sort, and I have had the pleasure of seeing the truth discover itself to my re- searches, and especially in later years, with perennial plants, trees of the same natural species (the sexualists call them vulgarly dioecious), of which one carries the male flowers, while the other, its companion, which is quite a different one, carries only the female flowers." (5a, p. 103.) Of these he mentions, (p. 104) the genera Ceratonia, Pistacia, Terebinthus and Lentiscus, and "cette espece de Palmier dactyli- fere qu'on nomme vulgairement Chamaerops, Chameriphesy In the garden of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, he com- ments, the difference in sex in the flowers of trees had long been noticed, the gardener himself having remarked it for more than twenty years. The latter was, however, unable to discern the cause of sterility in the plants. The simplicity of mind obtaining in re- gard to the matter at the time is evidenced by Gleditsch's remark, that the gardener was greatly surprised at the appearance of the perfect fruits of the terebinth {Pistacia terebinthus), because he had not thought of this, that the simple sprinkling of the powder of the anthers was sufficient to effect its production. His surprise doubled especially, when, from these fruits, either planted of themselves in the ground or planted expressly with care, he saw arise, a little afterwards, the finest plants in the world, (p. 104.) The attempt is mentioned of Prince Eugene of Austria, during the last years of his life, to secure the artificial pollination of the palm, a matter of which he had read descriptions. To this end, he had palm trees of the different sexes and of considerable size, sent to his garden at Vienna, but the palms perished in the space of a year, without flowering. The palm at Berlin upon which Gleditsch determined for his experiments, was a pistillate tree, which was, as he says, possibly more than eighty years old, "and certainly the largest of all those of its species which are found today in the gardens of Germany." According to the testimony of a man said to be of note, and then in his sixty-sixth year, the tree in question was formerly in the Royal Garden at Berlin, and had been seen by the person referred to in its earliest days. During this entire time the tree had borne 72 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL no fruits, nor later in the Botanical Garden, according to the gardener, "and for my part," Gleditsch adds, "I have never remarked, among the flowers which fall every year from this palm, any perfect fruit; still less have I been able to observe any which encloses a fertile seed." (p. io6.) In the spring of 1749, Gleditsch (p. 106) was able to obtain, from the botanists Ludwig and Boehmer at Leipzig, flowers of a male plant growing there in the garden of a certain Caspar Bose. Gleditsch states as follows : "I received them in the spring of 1749, during the days which were already very warm. The heat of the sun had completely withered and spoiled the packets of stamens, and the greater part of the powder had escaped from the seminal vesicles. I collected in a small spoon a part of this powder, which was spread for the time on the paper with which the box was lined on the interior." (p. 106.) The journey from Leipzig had taken nine days, during which time the pistillate palm at Berlin, on account of the heat, had entirely finished flowering, so that there remained only a very small number of flowers at the tips of the branches; in addition to which, however, unexpectedly, a small cluster of new flowers bloomed late. The pollen, which had escaped from the anthers and adhered to the paper, was spread upon the pistillate flowers, and the packet of already mouldy stamens was applied to the flower cluster that had bloomed late. "This sprinkling of the fecundation powder having been done, the fecundation had the success I would have expected; the vegetati n- bladders swelled in great number, and became filled with a fertile setting of seed, suitable for further propagation; these became veritable little eggs." (p. 107.) "These little eggs or seeds ripened in the fruits the last winter, and having been planted in the ground at the beginning of the spring of 1750, plants have come from them conformable to their origin, that is to say, little palms, which testify in an incontestable manner that vegetable fe- cundation has been fully accomplished." (p. 107.) Another pollination experiment was made in 175'0. Another packet of male flowers was obtained from Leipzig. Of this experi- ment, Gleditsch states : "Its particles have promptly penetrated the stigmas of our female palm, and have the efficacy of fecundating a great quantity of fruits or dates, of which I have presented the clusters to the Academy in order to submit them to its examination." (p. 107.) "This so simple attempt at the artiKcial fecundation of our palm makes PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 73 it evident that the greater part of the difficulties which the botanists make a display of in their theories, which very often they invent, in relation to the fecundation of vegetables, have almost no reality, and, if they had, it would necessarily require that the greater number of plants remained sterile." (p. 108.) A third experiment in the fertilization of the palm, was again undertaken in 1767. The species of palm used in the experiments was, according to Gleditsch's statement, the same individual as used in the two previous ones. (p. 7.) "The female palm which we preserve in the Royal Botanical Garden is very old, and of fine appearance, without having ever borne dates up to the years 1749 and 1750, when I fertilized it for the first and second times with the powder of the flowers which I had let come from Leipzig by post. I made report at the same time to the Academy of these two experiments, and I produced by means of the dates, perfectly ripe, young palms, which exist still in the garden." (p. 7.) After describing the pollination of the palm by means of the transportation of the pollen by air currents, and the hand- pollination of the date in oriental countries, which, he says, "has taken place in these countries since men inhabit them and cultivate them," he remarks: "This does not prevent the savants from putting the question nowa- days of whether the thing is possible, and the fact is real." (p. 6.) "Let one separate the male palms from these female ones," he con- tinues, "of which I have said above that the proximity of the males was absolutely necessary for them for fertilization ; one will infallibly see happen what took place at Berlin with respect to our female palm, since the time of the late King Frederick I, to wit, that this tree, deprived of its male, had remained in perfect sterility since, and that its fruits have not reached maturity." (p. 6.) "No one indeed," he says, "will ever confound the unfertilized debris which our palm produced, every year, and which I place here by the side of the effect of fecundation, with these perfect fruits, and especially with that which has served to produce a young palm which derives its extrac- tion from the first." (p. 7.) The pollen for the third pollination experiments was sent from Karlsruhe, a distance of eighty miles. Referring to the custom in the orient, of hunting for the male trees, from which the inhabi- tants bring in clusters of the staminate flowers to hang beside the female flowers, he makes the statement that the male flowers remain sometimes fifteen days or three weeks on the road before being used for pollination. Before undertaking the first two experiments in fertilizing the palm, Gleditsch states that he made other preliminary ones in the 74 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Royal Botanical Garden, upon a mastic tree {Pistacia lentiscus), and on a terebinth {Pistacia terebinthus), both of which were suc- cessful, especially so in the case of the latter, from which he was able to collect nearly half a "Metze" — nearly two liters — of seed. After the two experiments mentioned, Gleditsch remarks that he allowed the palm to remain eighteen years, without securing another fertilization, not, however, without having taken much pains to procure pollen from other places. At the end of the time referred to, he addressed himself to Kolreuter, who was at the time medical adviser to the Margrave of Bade-Bourlach, and to whom he refers as : "One of the most diligent naturalists of our times, who sent me, in the month of May, some of this powder of the flowers, which I had searched for since so long in vain, with a little quantity of the same powder which he had already kept for a year." (p. 9.) The latter, he states, had no fertilizing effect, but the former was entirely effective. The details of the experiment are not un- interesting. The palm put out successively eleven clusters of flowers between the ninth and twenty-sixth of May. The tree was thoroughly rid of all debris and of all clusters of dried flowers. On account of the height of the tree, it was necessary to erect a scaffold around its crown, so that the flowers could be readily pollinated, and subsequently be observed as long as necessary. Of the eleven flower clusters, three were chosen for pollination, which were the nearest to the glass of the greenhouse and hence the m.ost exposed to the sun. One of these, the smallest, was pollinated with the pollen which had been kept for a year, "but," he says, "it did not produce any effect, as I was able from the first to observe at the end of fifteen days." (p. 10.) The second and third clusters were pollinated with the fresh pollen. "Having been obliged to keep for eight days the fertilizing powder which had been sent me from Carlsruhe, I proceeded to the second fe- cundation, in the manner which I have already related, in the last days of the month of May." (p. 10.) "when I afterwards examined," he continues, "what had been the effect of the powder on the flowers, I found that the edge of the flower with the blunt anthers had fallen, or at least had suffered some change, the little ovaries had become softened, had taken on a little growth, their color had become modified, and they had become brilliant." (p. 11.) In his first two pollination experiments with this tree, Gleditsch PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 75 relates that he had simply sprinkled the pollen over the flowers without more ado. On this third occasion, he pollinated the pistil- late flowers with a camel's-hair brush and, as he states, he did not omit a flower. At the end of the seventh month, the large cluster fertilized produced ripe and perfect fruits, those of the first flowers being the largest, the later ones being of different sizes, by reason of the diminishing amount of light and heat from the sun. The form gf the fruits is described as resembling olives, and their color, nut-brown, and in the best specimens, chestnut-brown. The outer coat of the fruit is described as being fine and very brilliant, the interior thick, filamentous and grayish. Under this was the fleshy soft envelope of the seed, which is described as having the color of fresh mace. The odor of the flesh of the fruits is described as disagreeable, resembling at maturity the odor of old butter, whence the name in Germany "Butter-palm." The taste of the fruits is stated to be sharp, corresponding, in certain re- spects, to the odor. As the result of his experiment, Gleditsch con- cludes that : "The action which is required to produce a rather considerable change has not taken and does not take place without an actual contact, imme- diate or mediate, of the two palms, as is required in male and female animals, conformably with the general laws of nature, and with the manifest testimony of experience. The contact takes place in fact in plants, but, so far as we are informed at present, the sole way consists in the powder of the flowers of the male plant, where, following the distinct idea which science can furnish us, is found contained that which serves for the fecundation of the plant." (p. 13.) It is important to note that at no time does Gleditsch appear to have had a clear idea as to the manner of the germination of the pollen grains. The substance in their interior, he says : "when it is perfected, and when its time for escaping has arrived, does so little by little, without the vesicles breaking for this effect." (p. 15.) The character of the contents of the pollen grains is taken to be of the nature of an oil, since, on macerating a quantity of pine pollen in a mortar with mercury, he obtained a substance resem- bling wax, which could be kneaded between the fingers, but which was not quite wax, he says, for, when placed in an envelope of paper, it was found that "it penetrates all the paper with its subtle oil." This oil is apparently, in Gleditsch's mind, the material agent of fertilization. The pollen grains fall upon the stigma, which is 76 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL covered with fine "warty projections" (vermes deliees), "between which the powder of the plants is carried externally, and spreads its oil." (p. 16.) The stigma exudes also a secretion, which Gleditsch considers to represent the contribution of the pistillate plant to fecundation, as the "huile" from the pollen grains con- stitutes the corresponding contribution of the staminate plant. "These two singular sorts of humidity, which are particularly filtered in the flowers, and of which one exudes from the powder of the male flowers, the other from the tube of the ovary, or from the style of the female flower, unite and mingle together, whereby the one alters the properties of the other and produces a substance of a third nature, which participates in those of the two preceding, and which manifests itself more or less in the young plants, after fecundation and propagation." (P- 17.) The actual process of fertilization, by means of this united sub- stance, is stated by Gleditsch to be as follows : The most refined of these two fluid substances thus united, is carried by suction into the ovary, where it enters the newly- formed and undeveloped seeds, in a short time causing there, by means of its proper force, a great change in the "pithy center" (point moelleux) found there, i.e., within the ovules; furnishing it (the point moelleux) its nourishment, and laying the founda- tions for the final development of the young plant newly formed there. It appears, therefore, according to the view here represented (p. 17), that an undifferentiated central point of some kind is assumed to exist in the ovules; that an oily fertilizing material, exuding by degrees from the pollen grains, penetrates to the ovary, generally by means of "canaliculi" often extremely min- ute, enters the ovules, and reaches the "pithy center" referred to as : "That part of the marrow or pith, which, coming from the plant, has terminated in the ovary of the flowers." The fertilizing substance furnishes to this special "marrow" the addition of a living fluid, which puts it in condition to extend, and which is at the same time its first aliment, (p. 17.) We have at the present time, he says, only a confused idea of the process. "We are not able to venture to judge it, except after the visible result of expansion and development, of which we have just spoken." (p. 17.) This concludes the account of one of the most notable confirma- tory experiments in pollination, conducted expressly for the pur- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 77 pose of verifying the theory of the sexuality of plants, and car- -ried out with scientific thoroughness and accuracy. This outlines the history of the more important experiments known to have been performed in connection with the investiga- tion of sex in plants, to the days of Kolreuter. By the middle of the eighteenth century, therefore, little doubt should have remained in scientific minds regarding the existence of sex in plants, or as to the necessity of the pollen as a fertiliz- ing agent. As Kolreuter himself says : "The pollen is a collection of organic particles, which in every plant have a definite form ; it is the true instrument in which the male fer- tilizing material (Saamen) is produced, disengaged, and made suited for dissemination." ("Vorlaufige Nachricht," p. 7.) Actual experiments in fertilization, many of them between plants of different species, had been successfully carried out in more than twenty important groups of plants, from many differ- ent families. We have also in Kolreuter's work a careful study of the characteristics of hybrids, obtained in sixty-five different hybridization experiments, conducted with species from a dozen different genera, belonging to diverse families, together with an accurate comparison of the characters of the hybrid plants of the first generation with those of their parents. A scientific foundation had therefore been laid for genetic work in the breeding of plants. The value of Kolreuter's own experi- mental work was doubted, however, by influential contemporary critics, although Sageret (10), whose opinion should have carried weight, said of it : "Having several times repeated his experiments, I have occasion to con- vince myself more and more of his exactitude and of his veracity; I be- lieve then that he merits all confidence." Kolreuter began with perfectly settled convictions regarding sexuality in the plant kingdom. In the preface to his "Vorlaufige Nachricht" of September 1, 1761, he states that he would have accompanied his manuscript material with special proof concern- ing sex in plants, if he had not considered it in his present view (bey gegenwartiger Absicht) as in the highest degree superfluous. "The most important of these [e.g., the proofs in question] anyone can deduce therefrcm, who has only to a tolerable degree a conception of this subiect. I flatter myself in the meanwhile with the good hope that, if not through the already propounded propositions alone, yet at least 78 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL through the whole of the plan of my observations and experiments, which will appear in the above-mentioned treatise, and of which the ones here presented are only a small part, I shall completely convince everyone, even the most stiff-necked doubter, of the truth of the sex of plants, if, contrary to all suppositions, such an one should still be found, who, after a close examination, still maintained the contrary, it would be as greatly a surprise to me, as though I heard anyone maintain at clear midday that it is night." ("Vorlaufige Nachricht," Vorrede, p. 5.) Despite the fact that Kolreuter had demonstrated conclusively the possibility of crossing plants, even "species," artificially, and had even laid the foundations for a knowledge of the laws governing hybrids, much doubt still remained in the minds of botanists, regarding the facts which Camerarius' and Kolreuter's experiments demonstrated. As Sachs remarks (9, p. 413) : "The plant collectors of the Linnaean school, as well as the true systematists at the end of the eighteenth century, had little understand- ing for such labors as Kolreuter's, and incorrect ideas on hybrids and their power of maintaining themselves prevailed in spite of them in botanical literature." Gartner says of Kolreuter's work, writing In 1849 (3 c, p. 5) : "Hybridization in its scientific significance was so little thought of, and at the most regarded merely as a proof of the sexuality of plants, that the many important suggestions and actual data which this diligent and exact observer recorded in various treatises have found but little acceptance in plant physiological papers up to the most recent time. On the other hand, even in respect to the sexuality of plants, they were at- tacked to such a degree that their genuineness was doubted and strenu- ously contradicted, or else they were regarded as a sort of inoculation phenomenon belonging to gardening." 11. Christian Konrad Sprengel. Christian Konrad Sprengel was born in Brandenburg a H. in 1750, as the fifteenth son of a clergyman. He studied theology and philology at Halle, and in 1774 became instructor in the school of the King Frederick Hospital, and at the Royal Military School in Berlin. After six years of service, he was appointed (1780) to the posi- tion of Head (Rector) of the large Lutheran city school at Span- dau, where his teaching was largely in the ancient languages, a position which he held until 1794. In this year he was retired on a pension, and spent his remaining years in Berlin, living in quite simple circumstances, until his death, which occurred April 7, 1816. At the suggestion of a Dr. Heim, then a practising physician PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 79 in Spandau, and afterwards a celebrated physician in Berlin, he was led to take up botanical studies as a relief from hypochron- dria. It was thus that Sprengel became interested in the biology of the flower, and hence finally, in 1793, published the results of X>M ^ W« 4 \\\l ! vxy tMit(l(M'kf<" (M^luMuniils Plate XXIII. Title-page of Sprengel's "Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur." 8o PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL five years of minute and extensive observations and studies, in a folio volume with twenty-five plates, which contained hundreds of detailed and accurate illustrations of flowers and their parts. This famous work, "Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen," was based upon the thor- oughgoing observation and investigation of nearly live hundred species. Through lack of funds Sprengel was prevented from publish- ing the second part of his work, which led him, toward the end of his life, to give up botany altogether, and devote himself to classical studies. During his years of retirement in Berlin, he gave lessons in the classics and in botany for recreation, and on Sun- days conducted botanical excursions in the neighborhood of Berlin for small fees. On account of the dry and formal character of the botanical science of his time, Sprengel's work remained unnoticed for forty- three years after his death. The first serious mention of it in scientific literature appears to have been that made by Darwin, in the "Origin of Species" in 1859. (6th ed. 1895, p. 119.) Sprengel is described as a man averse to the conventional flat- teries of life, and of a rather recklessly open type of character. In his Berlin excursions he is described as awakening attention through the wealth of his knowledge and his inwardly spiritual character, and as arousing interest alike in all the objects of nature, — an inscription on a gravestone, the construction of a windmill, the course of the stars, and the body of a plant. Dur- ing Sprengel's Spandau period, it is stated, a large portion of his thirteen years of official duty was filled with an almost unbroken chain of events involving insubordination, quarrels with the au- thorities, and friction with the parents of the pupils, which cir- cumstances led him to be described by a local chronicler as "in- human in his punishments, arbitrary in his teaching, stubborn, and little religious." The whole truth appears to have been that Spren- gel was a man of a large and powerful nature, with considerable intellectual gifts, rich knowledge, and aware of his own state of advancement, but uncompromising, and, from having been forced into too confined and narrow an environment in which his ideas and prepossessions found little opportunity for expression, his na- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 81 ture consequently spent itself in intractable and dictatorial con- tentions. Of his botanical knowledge, gained during his Spandau studies, his contemporary, Willdenow, afterward the first professor of botany in the University of Berlin, made use in his "Prodromus Florae Berolinensis," 1787, and praised the self-taught botanist as "a thoroughly keen-minded plant investigator." The discoveries of Christian Konrad Sprengel should have called attention to Kolreuter's antecedent discovery of the relation between insects and flowers. While Camerarius had demonstrated the fact that plants possess sex, and Kolreuter had shown that fertile hybrids could be produced between plants of different kinds, the further fact, that crossing in nature, at least among different individuals of the same species, is a common and ordi- nary phenomenon in the plant kingdom, was not at all known. Aware, as we are today, that the improvement of cultivated plants, due to the appearance of new strains and varieties, is to be ac- credited largely at the outset to the natural crossing of individuals standing in fairly close genetic relationship to one another, we can see the great importance, in the history of plant breeding, of Sprengel's discovery that flowers are commonly pollinated by insects, and that there is an intimate interrelationship between the plant and the insect worlds, Sprengel's epoch-making book "The Newly-revealed Secret of Nature in the Structure and Fertilization of Flowers" fii) con- stitutes a third great landmark in plant breeding, after the orig- inal discovery of the possibility of artificial pollination by the Mesopotamian date growers. Such a wealth of accurate first-hand observations on the adaptations of flowers to cross-pollination had never before been made. To Sprengel also is due the discov- ery of dichogamy, i,e., the maturing of the stamens and the pis- tils of flowers at different times. His conclusion, that nature in most cases intended that flowers should not be fertilized by their own pollen, and that the peculiarities of flower structure can only be understood when studied in relation to the insect, was revolu- tionary for his time. Sprengel's work has been well described by Sachs, as "the first attempt to explain the origin of organic forms from definite rela- tion to their environment." (9, p. 415-) 82 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Conceding the fact that plants actually have sex, it is plain that some kind of breeding must be possible. Granting that hy- brids even between different species can be produced, it is fur- ther plain that new kinds of plants can be originated. But what of the additional fact, the contribution of Sprengel, that in gen- eral nearly all flowering plants with definite floral envelopes are naturally cross-fertilized. It signified that the bringing together of combinations of parental characters is the rule rather than the exception in nature, and that, therefore, the breeding of new types in the plant world may be said to be going on all the time. It remained for Darwin to show how the results from such perpetual crossings are limited and held in check by the operation of natural selection. At all events, Sprengel's discoveries at once disclosed at least an important reason for diversity, for so many variations in nature, upon which fact man had unconsciously depended for the selection of "superior" types of plants, and hence for the "im- provement" of races. Unfortunately, the discoveries and disclosures of Sprengel awakened little interest at the time. Like the work of Camerarius and Kolreuter, the investigations of Sprengel, in turn, suffered comparative obscurity. Biologists of his day believed in the dogma of the fixity of species, upon which Kolreuter's and Sprengel's experiments and discoveries regarding cross-pollination by means of insects tended to cast doubt, and to require the substitution, for the doctrine of the fixity of species, of the principle of the comparative stability of organic forms. Although the scientific world traces a continuity of thought and investigation from Gartner back to Camerarius, the fact must not be lost sight of that each of the three chief investigators who laid the early foundations of plant genetics, Camerarius, Kolreu- ter, and Sprengel, was considerably ignored by the biological sci- ence of his own time. Two generations elapsed from the time of Camerarius to that of Kolreuter, and another from Kolreuter's time to that of Spren- gel. It is more than a fourth generation from Sprengel's publica- tion to the time of the work of William Herbert (1837) ; a third of a generation more to the appearance of Gartner's memoir (1849), and about half of another generation again, before the appearance of Mendel's celebrated papers (186:6^, and finally, PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 83 more than another generation until the date of the rediscovery of Mendel's work (1900), the beginning of the scientific period properly speaking. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bradley^ Richard. New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, both Philo- sophical and Practical, explaining the motion of Sap and Generation of Plants. 6th ed. London, 1718, 2. Focke, Wilhelm Olbers. Die Pflanzenmischlinge, ein Beitrag sur Biologie der Ge- wachse. Berlin, 1861. 3. Gartner^ Carl Friedrich von. (a) Over de Voortling van Bastard-Planten, Eene Bijtrage tot de Kenntniss van de Bevruchting der Gewassen. Haarlem, 1838. (b) Versucheund Beobachtungeniiberdie Befruchtungs-organe der volkommeneren Gewachse, und iiber die natiirliche und kiinstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Stuttgart, 1844. • (c) Versuche und Beobachtungen iiber die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich, mit Hinweisung auf die ahnlichen Erscheinungen im Thierreiche. Stuttgart, 1849. (d) Methode der kiinstlichen Bastardebefruchtung der Ge- wachse, und Namensverzeichniss der Pflanzen mit wel- chen Versuche angestellt wurden. 4. Gleditsch^ Johann Gottlieb. Essai d'une fecondation artificielle, fait sur I'espece de pal- mier qu'on nomme Palma dactylifera folio flabelliformi. His- toire de I'Academie royale des Sciences et de Belles Lettres de Berlin, 1749, pp. 103-8. 5. Grew, Nehemiah (1641-1712). (a) The anatomy of vegetables begun, with a general ac- count of vegetation grounded thereon, June 11, 1672. (b) The anatomy of plants. 1682. 84 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 6. Logan^ James. (a) Experimenta et naeletemata de plantarum generatione. Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden), 1739. (b) Experiments and considerations on the generation of plants. 2nd edition of the above, English and Latin on opposite pages, and with both English and Latin title page. London, 1747. 7. Miller, Philip. Gardeners' Dictionary, containing the best and newest meth- ods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit flower- garden, and nursery, etc. 7th ed. London, 1759. 8. Moreland, Samuel. Some observations upon the parts and uses of the flower in plants. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 23: 1474-79. 1702-03. 9. Sacks, Julius von. History of Botany, 1530-1860. Translated by Garnsey and Balfour. 2nd impression, Oxford, 1906. 10. Sageret, Augustin. Considerations sur la production des hybrides, des variantes, et des varietes en general, et sur celles des Cucurbitacees en particulier. xA.nnales des Sciences Naturelles, 18:294. 1826. 1 1 . Sprengel, Christian Konrad. Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Be- fruchtung der Blumen. (1793), ed. Paul Knuth. In Ost- wald's Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, No. 48, 4 vols. Leipzig, 1894. CHAPTER IV THE EARLY ENGLISH HYBRIDISTS AT the beginning of the nineteenth century there began to appear in England the first signs of the application of the science of hybridization to the practical art of breeding, in the work of Thomas Andrew Knight, and of William Herbert. 12. Thomas Andrew Knight. Thomas Andrew Knight was a country gentleman by occupa- tion. Born August 12, 1759, he was educated at Oxford, and early began to interest himself on his estate at Elton in Herefordshire in experiments in the raising of new varieties of fruits and vege- tables. In 1795, his work as a horticulturist first became known through some papers read at the sessions of the Royal Society. He was an organizer of the Horticultural Society of London, founded 1804, of which he was president from 1811 until his death in 1838. He was an annual contributor to its "Transac- tions," and was the author of upwards of one hundred papers. In 1841, three years after his death, a collection of eighty-two of his papers was published by the botanists Bentham and Lind- ley. Of Knight's published papers, forty-six are enumerated in the Royal Society's Catalogue. Knight was not a scientific man, but a practical horticulturist with scientific instincts, who pro- ceeded on the principle that the improvement of plants depended upon the same scientific laws as the improvement of animals, and that cross-breeding was the key to the origination of new and im- proved sorts. His principal work of crossing was carried out with currants, grapes, apples, pears, and peaches, to the end of pro- ducing hardier and superior fruits. One of his discoveries of genetic interest was that in crosses of varieties of red upon white currant, by far the greater number of the hybrids produced red fruit, in other words demonstrating the dominance of red. A con- * I f Plate XXIV. Thomas Andrew Knight, 1759-1838. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 87 elusion formulated by Knight, on the basis of his experience, afterwards confirmed by Darwin, and since called the Knight- Darwin law, was that: "New varieties of every species of fruit will generally be better- ob- tained by introducing the farina (pollen) of one variety of fruit into the blossom of another, than by propagating from one single kind." (3f, p. 38.) However, the work of Knight which attracts the most atten- tion from the standpoint of genetics is his experiment with peas. The paper in question, read before the Horticultural Society, June 3, 1823, was entitled "Some Remarks on the Supposed Influences of the Pollen, in Cross-breeding, on the Color of the Seed-coats of Plants and the qualities of Their Fruits." This paper is really, in part, a reply to certain phases of the experiments of John Goss upon the same plant. Knight's intro- ductory statement, which follows, is a curious reminder in point of form of Mendel's own introduction to his report upon his ex- periments with peas nearly half a century later. Knight says : "The numerous varieties of strictly permanent habits of the pea, its annual life, and the distinct character in form, size and color to many of its varieties, induced me, many years ago, to select it for the purpose of ascertaining, by a long course of experiments, the effects of introduc- ing the pollen of one variety into the prepared blossoms of another. My chief object in these experiments was to obtain such information as would enable me to calculate the probable effects of similar operations upon gther species of plants, and I believe it would not be easy to sug- gest an experiment of cross-breeding upon this plant, of which I have not seen the result, through many successive generations." (sf, p. 378.) In the particular experiment in question Knight determined that, in crossing a pea with grey seed-coats upon one with white seed-coats, no immediate change in color took place, but that the resulting hybrid seeds produced plants the next year which uni- formly bore grey seeds, as well as having the purple-colored stems and the flowers of the male parent. He further discovered the fact that by crossing plants grown from these (heterozygous) grey seeds, with pollen from what he calls a "permanent" white variety, plants of two types appeared, one bearing grey and the other white seeds — in other words, in modern terms, the result of the cross of a recessive white upon a hybrid dominant grey. No numbers are reported, so that a scientific basis of ratios, as later found by Mendel, was not laid. 88 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Twenty-five years earlier, in 1799, Knight undertook experi- ments with plants to test the theory of "superfoetation," that is to say, the possibility of two males combining in the fecundation of a female. At the time, the behavior of the fertilizing cells was absolutely unknown, as was the fact that but one sperm cell was required to fertilize the egg. In fact, cells as such, and their func- tion, were not as yet discovered. It was quite commonly supposed, for instance, that an excess of pollen in pollination produced an excess effect amounting to a preponderating evidence of the male characters in the offspring. Peas were chosen for the purpose of the experiment in ques- tion. The principal object was to obtain new and improved vari- eties of apples, but inasmuch as years must elapse before the results would become known, it was resolved, in the interval, to experiment with annual plants. "Among these," he says, "none appeared so well adapted to answer my purpose as the common pea ; not only because I could obtain many varieties of this plant, of different forms, sizes and colors ; but also be- cause the structure of its blossoms, by preventing the ingress of insects and adventitious fauna, has rendered its varieties remarkably perma- nent." (3a, p. 196.) Having a variety in his garden which appeared to him, from having been long grown in the same soil, to have lost its vigor, he emasculated a dozen flowers upon it in 1787, pollinating half of them with the pollen from "a large and luxuriant grey pea," leaving the other half dozen as they were. The ovules in the pods of the unfertilized flowers, withered, of course. "Those in the other pods attained maturity, but were not in any sen- sible degree different from those afforded by other plants of the same variety, owing, I imagine, to the external covering of the seed (as I have found in other plants) being furnished entirely by the female." {ib., p. 197.) Knight was thus induced to take up garden peas for his ex- periments, for the same reason, as stated, that led Mendel later to do likewise. His reflections upon the reason for the act of fer- tilization by pollen from the grey-seeded pea (i.e., with grey seed- coats) not affecting the fertilized ovules in respect to their seed- coats, show the mind of an acute observer. "in the succeeding spring the difference, however, became extremely obvious ; for the plants from them rose with excessive luxuriance, and the color of their leaves and stems clearly indicated that they had all PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 89 exchanged their whiteness for the color of the male parent; the seeds produced in autumn were dark gray." {ib., p. 197.) Here, then, is the first recorded instance of color-dominance in peas. Knight, however, did not follow out the results to the next generation from the selfed hybrids, but re-pollinated the hybrids with pollen from a white variety, as the result of which, he says, there were produced a variety of new kinds, "Many of which were, in size and in every respect, much superior to the original white kind, and grew with excessive luxuriance, some of them attaining the height of more than twelve feet. I had frequent occasion to observe, in this plant, a stronger tendency to produce purple blossoms and colored seeds than white ones ; for, when I introduced the farina of a purple blossom into a white one, the whole of the seeds in the succeed- ing year became colored." {ib., p. 197.) Here again is an early observation of the fact of dominance, and possibly of heterosis. Knight proceeds to the conclusion that, by mixing the pollen of the two kinds of peas, he could, through the behavior of the seeds, readily determine whether "superfoeta- tion" had taken place or not. In view of the non-existence of "superfoetation," except in the rare cases of dispermy, the experi- ment itself is not of importance, but it brought forth the follow- ing remark, which is interesting as showing Knight's knowledge of the fact of dominance of grey seed-coat color. "For as the offspring of a white pea is always white, unless the farina of a colored kind be introduced into the blossom, and as the color of the gray one is always transferred to its offspring, although the female be white, it readily occurred to me, that if the farina of both were mingled or applied at the same moment, the offspring of each could be easily distinguished." {ib., p. 198.) Pollinating the flowers of some of the hybrids with the pollen from a white-seeded pea, he says, "The second year I obtained white seeds." Here, he should have obtained gray and white, half and half, but he makes no mention of numbers, since the numeri- cal relations of the seeds did not occur to him as being significant. It is interesting to note the results of Knight's experiment in reciprocal crossing. "By introducing the farina of the largest and most luxuriant kinds into the blossoms of the most diminutive, and by reversing this process, I found that the powers of the male and female, in their effects upon the offspring, are exactly equal." {ib., p. 200.) The vigor of growth, the size of the seeds procured, and the 90 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL season of maturity were the same, although the one was a very early and the other a very late variety. "I had in this experiment, a striking instance of the stimulative effects of crossing the breeds ; for the smallest variety, whose height rarely ex- ceeded two feet, was increased to six feet, whilst the height of the large and luxuriant kind was very little diminished." {ib., p. 2CK).) Despite the fact that Focke says (Pflanzenmischlinge, p. 436) "he has contributed more to our knowledge of hybrids than any other writer during the first half of the nineteenth century" — a statement which may, of course, perhaps be seriously disputed — it is nevertheless true that Knight was the first experimenter to apply the science of plant hybridization to plant improvement. Although endowed with scientific insight of no mean order, his chief claim to recognition as a plant breeder lies in the fact that he possessed a practical instinct for getting improved orchard fruits into existence. Knight remarked upon the fact that it had long since been ascertained by physiologists that, since the seed- coats, or membranes which cover the cotyledons of the seed, to- gether with the receptacles which contain them, are visible for some time before the blossoms reach their full growth, therefore the existence of such structures is independent of the influence of the pollen. The fact is also that the seed-coats and the fruit of some species reach nearly if not completely their full growth, when the pollen has been entirely withheld ; therefore, from these and other observations, he concludes: "it has been inferred that neither the external cover of the seeds, nor the form, taste or flavor of fruits, are affected by the influence of the pollen of a plant of a different variety or species." (3f, p. 377.) There exists, however, he continues, some diflFerence of opinion in this regard, the experiments of Goss appearing to support the opinion that : "The color of the seed-coat, at least, may be changed by the influence of the pollen of a variety of different character." {ib., p. 378.) The account which Knight then gives of his experiments is as follows : When the pollen of a grey-seeded pea was used to fertilize the flowers of a white variety, "no change whatever took place in the form, or color, or size of the seed ; all were white, and externally quite similar to others which had been produced by the unmutilated blossoms of the same plant." {lb., p. 379-) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 91 These seeds, however, sown the following year, "uniformly afforded plants with colored leaves and stems, and purple flowers ; and these produced gray peas only." {ib., p. 379.) In the case of Goss's "Blue Prussian" Pea, Knight continues, the cotyledons being blue in color, and this color being percepti- ble through the semi-transparent seed-coats, caused the latter to appear blue, although they were really white. He concludes : "The color of the cotyledons only was, I therefore conceive, changed, whilst the seed-coats retained their primary degree of whiteness." {ib., P- 379.) Knight therefore finally holds that the opinions that neither the color of the seed-coats, nor the form, taste, or flavor of fruits, are ever affected by the immediate influence of the pollen of a plant of another variety or species, are well-founded {ib.^ p. 380.) Knight thus built up an opinion of a general character regarding the fruits of plants, based upon his experiments involving the seed- coats alone. However insufficient such a conclusion seems at the present time, drawn from such partial premises, it is explainable by the fact that the morphology of seed-development was, at that time, little understood, so that the factors affecting any one part of the fruit, such as the seed-coats, might easily be conceived of as similarly affecting other parts. The following examples will serve to illustrate the nature of his results. Of his currant crosses, he says : "Five varieties, three red* and two white, out of about two hundred, appeared to me to possess considerably greater merits than either of their parents, and one of the red will, I believe, prove larger than any red currant now in cultivation." By crossing the "Noblesse" peach (female) by "Nutmeg" (male), he obtained about twenty seedlings, of which three: "Appeared better peaches than I previously possessed." Of one of these he says : "its fruit has attained a more uniform degree of perfection than I have ever witnessed in any other variety. The trees have also been free from every vestige of mildew, in a situation where the disease is very prevalent, and have entirely escaped the attacks of insects." In 1809, Knight gave a paper before the Royal Society, en- titled : "On the comparative influence of male and female par- ents on their offspring." (3c.) Prompted by the conception of Linnaeus, "that the character 92 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL of the male parent predominated in the exterior parts of both plants and animals," Knight undertook some experiments with the different species of fruit trees, but most extensively with the apple. He makes the general statement: "I have observed that seedling plants, when propagated from male and female parents of distinct characters and permanent habits, generally, though with some few exceptions, mherit much more of the character of the female, than of the male parent." (p. 393.) Without commenting upon this generalization, the experiments themselves may be briefly noticed. Crosses were made between the British and the Siberian crab-apple, which as, he says, ". . . however dissimilar in habit and character, appear to constitute a single species only, in which much variation has been effected by the in- fluence of climate on successive generations." (p. 395.) Knight reports a reciprocal cross between apple and Siberian crab. Both trees were trained to walls, where they blossomed earlier than ordinarily. All the flowers on the two trees except those used were removed and the stamens carefully removed from the remaining ones. Of the plants produced by cross-pollination. Knight says : "There was a very considerable degree of dissimilarity in the appear- ance of the offspring; and the leaves, and general habits of each, pre- sented an obvious prevalence of the character of the female parent." (P- 393-) Where the British crab-apple was used as the female parent, the buds did not unfold quite so early in the spring, and their fruits generally exceeded very considerably in size those which were produced by the trees which derived their existence from the seeds of the Siberian crab. "There was also a prevalence of the character of the female parent in the form of the fruit." (3c, p. 394.) The greater portion of the article is taken up with a discussion of similar cases in animal breeding. One observation is not with- out interest. "In several species of domesticated or cultivated animals (I believe in all), particular females are found to produce a very large majority, and sometimes all their offspring, of the same sex; and I have proved re- peatedly that, by dividing a herd of thirty cows into three equal parts, I could calculate, with confidence, upon a large majority of females from one part, of males from another, and upon nearly an equal number of males and females from the remainder. I have frequently endeavored to PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 93 change these habits by changing the male ; but always without success, and I have, in some instances, observed the offspring of the one sex, though obtained from different males, to exceed those of the other in the proportion of five or six and even seven to one. When on the con- trary, I have attended to the numerous offspring of a single bull, or ram, or horse, I have never seen any considerable difference in the number of offspring of either sex." (3c, pp. 397-8.) This interesting empirical observation is quoted as being of his- torical interest, and the observation regarding the difference in the reciprocal apple crosses is worth preservation. Knight sums up his practical views upon the relation of the science of botany to the breeding of plants in the following words : "I cannot dismiss the subject, without expressing my regret, that those who have made the science of botany their study, should have considered the improvement of those vegetables which, in their cultivated state, af- ford the largest portion of subsistence to mankind, and other animals, as little connected with the subject of their pursuit. Hence it has hap- pened that whilst much attention has been paid to the improvement of every species of useful animals, the most valuable esculent plants have been almost wholly neglected. But when the extent of the benefit which would arise to the plants, which, with the same extent of soil and labor, would afford even a small increase of produce, is considered, this subject appears of no inconsiderable importance. . . . The improvement of ani- mals is attained with much expense, and the improved kinds necessarily extend themselves slowly; but a single bushel of improved wheat or peas may in ten years be made to afford seed enough to supply the whole island." (3a, p. 204.) Focke, in his Pflanzenmischlinge," pp. 432-3, gives the follow- ing summary of Knight's services to the science and practice of hybridization : "Toward the end of the eighteenth century, a man appeared, whose works have been of particular significance for the knowledge of fertiliza- tion and crossing, Thomas Andrew Knight, the celebrated fruit and vege- table breeder. Starting with the successful efforts of the animal breeders, he came upon the thought whether it was not possible to improve do- mestic animals through crossing the races, to obtain more admirable sorts of economic plants. Without knowing anything of Kolreuter, he began his experiments with fruit trees, and from 1787 on, with peas, with which he was naturally able much earlier to turn out definite results. The pro- geny of his crossed races of peas gained extraordinarily in vigor and yield. Already in 1799 ('Phil. Trans.,' 1799, Part I, p. 202), Knight was able to express the principle, that nature intended that a sexual intercourse should take place between neighboring plants of the same species. He laid down this principle through his results in individual and race crosses, especially in the genus Pisum." 94 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 13. Wtllimn Herbert. The work of William Herbert was to a considerable extent con- temporary with that of Knight. Born January 12, 1778, son of the Earl of Carnarvon, educated at Eton and Oxford, he was trained for the bar, which he finally left for the Church, entering orders, and finally becoming Dean of Manchester. Fond of out-door life and sport, he possessed also, in addition to literary talent, an instinct for plant studies. Herbert worked largely on the im- provement of florists' flowers but also conducted experiments with some agricultural plants. He was engaged for a considerable time upon his own experiments, before he came upon the work of Kolreuter, some fifty or more years before his day, which he im- mediately assimilated, and estimated at its true value, as the following comment indicates : "The first experiments, with a view to ascertain the possibility of pro- ducing hybrid vegetables, appear to have been made in Germany, by Kolreuter, who published reports of his proceedings in the Acts of the Petersburgh Academy between fifty and sixty years ago. Lycium, Digi- talis, Nicotiana, Datura and Lobelia were the chief plants with which he worked successfully, and as I have found nothing in his reports to the best of my recollection opposed to my OAvn general observations, it is unnecessary to state more concerning his mules than the tact that he was the father of such experiments. They do not seem to have been at all fol- lowed up by others, or to have attracted the attention of cultivators or botanists as they ought to have done ; and nothing else material on the subject has fallen under my notice of earlier date than Mr. Knight's re- port of his crosses of fruit trees, and my own of ornamental flowers, in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. Those papers attracted the public notice, and appear to have excited many persons, both in this country and abroad, to similar experiments." (2c, p. 335.) In the year 1819, after having paid attention for some years to the production of hybrid plants, but then unaware of the work of Kolreuter, Herbert brought his views on the subject of hybrids before the Horticultural Society, and they were published in the "Transactions" of that body. He comments upon the matter as follows: "It is, however, satisfactory to find at the present day, after the atten- tion of botanists and cultivators has been fully called to the subject during the space of many years, and a multitude of experiments carried on by a variety of persons, that, although our knowledge of its mysteries is still very limited, my general views have been fully verified, and my anticipations confirmed in a manner which I was scarcely sanguine enough to have expected." (2c, p. 336.) The view then quite generally prevalent among botanists con- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 95 cerning hybridization was that a fertile cross was of itself proof that the two parents were of the same species, while sterile off- spring constituted conclusive evidence that they were of different species. This view was held, as Herbert says : "without suggesting any alteration in the definition of the term 'species,' but leaving it to imply what it had before universally signified in the language of botanists." Again he says : "Having, in fact, the same fundamental opinion, that the production of a fertile intermixture designated the common origin of the parents, I held also, what experience has in a great measure confirmed, that the production of any intermixture amongst vegetables, whether fertile or not, gave reason to suspect that the parents were descended from one common stock, and showed that they were referable to one genus ; but that there was no substantial and natural difference between what bota- nists had called species, and what they had termed varieties, the distinc- tion being merely in degree, and not absolute ; so that, without first re- forming the terms used in botany, and ascertaining more precisely what was meant by a species, those who argued on the subject were fighting the air." (2c, p. 337.) Herbert's entire freedom from any slavish adhesion to the species idea with respect to hybrids is plainly stated. "Further experiments have shown," he says, "that the sterility or fer- tility of the offspring does not depend upon original diversity of stock; and that, if two species are to be united in a scientific arrangement on account of a fertile issue, the botanist must give up his specific distinc- tions generally, and entrench himself within the general." (2c, p. 337.) "In fact there is no real or natural line of difference between species and permanent or descendible variety, as the terms have been applied by all botanists ; nor do there exist any features on which reliance can be placed to pronounce whether two plants are distinguishable as species or varieties. Any person, who attends to the subject, will perceive that no botanist has laid down any precise rules by which that point of in- quiry can be solved, and that the most variable, contradictory and un- substantial features have been taken by different persons, and by the same person on different occasions, to uphold the distinctions they pro- posed to establish ; the truth being that such distinctions are quite arbi- trary, and that, if two plants are found capable of inter-breeding, when approached by the hand of man, they are as much one as if they were made to intermix more readily and frequently by the mere agency of the wind, or assiduity of insects, and are nT)t separable with more truth by any positive difference, than the varieties which cannot be prevented from crossing with each other when in the same vicinity." (2g, p. 341.) It was the view of Herbert that fertility in hybrids depended much upon circumstances of climate, soil and situation. He finally concludes that experiments had made it almost certain "that the fertility of the hybrid or mixed offspring depends more upon 96 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL the constitutional than the closer botanical affinities of the parents." (2C, p. 342.) As to whether there was a real fundamental difference between plants which could produce fertile and those which could produce only sterile offspring by crossing, Herbert says further: "it was my opinion that fertility depended much upon circumstances of climate, soil and situation, and that there did not exist any decided line of absolute sterility in hybrid vegetables, though from reasons which I did not pretend to be able to develop, but undoubtedly depending upon certain affinities either of structure or constitution, there was a greater disposition to fertility in some than in others. Subsequent experiments have confirmed this view to such a degree as to make it almost certain — that the fertility of the hybrid or mixed offspring depends more upon the constitutional than the closer botanical affinities of the parents." (2c, p. 342.) He holds that it obtains as a general fact throughout the plant kingdom, that species which have close botanical affinity, if they have widely different soil or climatic requirements, are apt to pro- duce sterile offspring as the result of a cross, while, if they have the same constitutional habit, they tend to give rise to fertile offspring. From the standpoint, then, of a practical plant hybridizer and horticulturist, Herbert holds that : "Any discrimination between species and permanent varieties of plants is artificial, capricious, and insignificant ; that the question which is perpetually agitated, whether such a wild plant is a new species, or a variety of a known species, is waste of intellect on a point which is capable of no precise definition." (2c, p. 346.) "The effect, therefore, of the system of crossing, as pursued by the cultivator, instead of confusing the labors of the botanist, will be to force him to study the truth, and take care that his arrangement and subdivisions are conformable to the secret laws of nature ; and will only confound him when his views shall appear to have been superficial and inaccurate ; while on the other hand it will furnish him an irrefragable confirmation when they are based upon reality." (2C, p. 346.) The attitude of Herbert with regard to the production of hy- brids was not, however, so much the attitude of the scientist as that of the horticulturist and florist. His point of view is well stated in the following: "To the cultivators of ornamental plants, the facility of raising hybrid varieties affords an endless source of interest and amusement. He sees in the several species of each genus that he possesses, the materials with which he must work, and he considers in what manner he can blend them to the best advantage, looking to the several gifts in which each excels, whether of hardiness to endure our seasons, or brilliancy in its colors, PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 97 of delicacy in its markings, of fragrance, or stature, or profusion of blossom, and he may anticipate with tolerable accuracy the probable as- pect of the intermediate plant which he is permitted to create ; for that term may be figuratively applied to the introduction into the world of a natural form which has probably never before existed in it." (2c, p. 346.) With regard to the matter of inheritance of winter-hardiness, Herbert did some experimentation, as the result of which he found that the hybrid offspring held an intermediate position, being : ". . . less hardy than the one of its parents which bears the greatest exposure, and not so delicate as the other; but if one of the parents is quite hardy and the other not quite able to support our winters, the probability is that the offspring will support them, though it may suffer from a very unusual depression of the thermometer or excess of moisture which would not destroy its hardier parent." (2c, p. 347.) Regarding the matter of acclimatization, he held substantially the same view which generally obtains among plant physiologists of the present day, that: "it does not appear that in reality any plant becomes acclimated under our observation, except by crossing with a hardier variety, or by the acci- dental alteration of constitution in some particular seedling; nor that any period of time does in fact work an alteration in the constitution of an individual plant, so as to make it endure a climate which it was originally unable to bear." (2c, p. 347.) Entering into details regarding hybrids of his acquaintance, Herbert notes in fact that the first hybrid among liliaceous plants appearing in English gardens was the cross between Hippeastrum vittatum and H. regium. The next being the cross between Crinum capense, and Crinum zeylanicum in the greenhouse of the Earl of Carnarvon in 1813. "It is to be observed," he remarks, "that in some cases, the seminal varieties of plants preserve themselves almost as distinct in their gen- erations as if they were separate species" (2c, p. 366), and instances the cases of the orange, yellow, white, black, red, and pink hollyhocks, which come true from the seeds, although planted adjacent in the garden. He speaks also of the tendency among carnation seedlings to follow-the color of the parent plant. "j have had greater success," he says, "than any other person in rais- ing from seed double camellias of various tirtts and appearance, and some of the best have been produced either from single flowers, or plants raised from single ones, impregnated by the pollen of double flowers, preferring, where it can be got, the pollen that is borne on a petal." (2c, p. 367.) He notices the curious fact that the striped sorts of camellias 98 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL have usually more white in their flowers when they flower early in the spring, and that the earliest ripening seed of the year is most apt to yield white or particolored seedlings. Herbert carried on some experiments with double flowers and, in 1834, undertook an experiment in the improvement of agricul- tural plants, pollinating the Swedish turnip (rutabaga) with pollen of the white, and flowers on another branch of the same plant with pollen of the red-rooted turnip, which he speaks of as producing ". . . perhaps a greater tonnage than the white, bearing both frosts and unfavorable summers better, and thriving in soils where the white does not succeed." (2c, p. 370.) The seeds sown, produced good roots the same season : "The leaves differed in appearance from those of the Swedes, and did not, like them, retain the rain-water on their surface." (2c, p. 370.) In the following spring, the hybrids came into flower, the flow- ers of the hybrids being, for the most part, bright yellow like those of the male, a smaller number bearing straw-colored flow- ers like the Swedish turnip, but there were no intermediates. In a paper entitled "On hybridization amongst vegetables," Jour. Hort. Soc. of London, 2:1-28; 81-107 (1847), Herbert dis- cusses quite at length the species question, and shows how firm the allegiance still remained to the conception that fertile off- spring produced from a cross, constituted prima facie evidence that the parents were within the same species. He says : "And that is the use of hybridizing experiments, which I have in- variably suggested ; for, if I can produce a fertile offspring between two plants that botanists have reckoned fundamentally distinct, I consider that I have shown them to be one kind ; and indeed I am inclined to think that, if a well-formed and healthy offspring proceeds at all from their union, it would be rash to hold them of distinct origin." (2d, p. 7.) Herbert states {ib., p. 8), that he had had : ". . . no opportunities, by the help of a powerful microscope, of pur- suing any investigation into the process by which the pollen fertilizes the ovules," and goes on to say that, although he could not therefore under- take to contradict those who asserted that the pollen grains, "from their own bulk, emitted tubes which reached from the surface of the stigma to ovules in the germen" — a distance, as in certain species of Hymenocallis, amounting to sometimes 12-13 inches — it did not appear PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 99 possible to him that "such a minute body should emit a tube of such length, through which its contents were passed into the ovary, as as- serted." (p. 8.) Later on (p. 8) he alludes to the matter again : ". . . it is utterly impossible that such a minute body should emit such a pipe and its contents, that is, emit it of its own substance," and adds that he apprehends the truth to be "that by contact with the juices of the cognate plant it acquires that which enables it to gain bulk for such an elongation." Herbert noticed the fact that in species crosses (e.g., Passiflora coerulea X ony china) the ovaries may develop as the result of the fertilization stimulus (in this case forming "two fine plump fruits, two inches long"), the interior remaining empty as a bladder, "the outer coat of the fruit only having been fertilized in consequence of the weakness of the cross-bred pollen." {ih.^ p. 9.) In other cases, he comments, one may find a perfect ovary, and seeds grown to full size, although "containing a perishable lymph, and no sound kernel." It appears to Herbert that the fer- tilization-process is one which may consist of gradual degrees, and that "it follows therefore that a continued operation of the pollen must be necessary to produce all these requisites for the formation of a good seed." {ih.^ p. 9.) He speaks of the "fertiliza- tion" of the seed-coats and of the "albumen" as a process inde- pendent of the fertilization of the ovules, since the result of such fertilization may cause the seeds to grow, although without de- veloping an embryo. He finally concludes (p. 10) : "if, therefore, as I apprehend, the pollen tubes cannot reach the ovules without deriving substance from the cognate juices of the style through which they descend, it becomes easy to understand how there may be sufficient affinity between them to carry on the process to the degree necessary for quickening the capsule, but not to carry it on to the point requisite and with the excitement and irritability necessary for reaching the ovules, etc." Again, he continues, where adaptation of the two types is per- fect, a perfect offspring is produced ; where it is not perfect, an inadequate or weak fertilization occurs, and, "it is further to be observed that there is frequently an imperfect hybrid fertilization which can give life, but not sustain it well." Among these he mentions Hibiscus palustris X speciosus^ of which the seeds al- ways sprouted, but of which only one was saved to the third leaf, when it perished. He states that of Rhododendron ponti- 100 PLANT HYBRIDlZx^TION BEFORE MENDEL cum X ^^ orange Azalea he had never raised seedlings beyond the third or fourth leaf. From Rhododendron canadense X Azalea pontica, he succeeded in saving "only one out of more than a hundred seedlings, and that became a vigorous plant." (jh., p. 11.) He says further : "In these cases I apprehend that, although the affinity of the juices is sufficient to enable the pollen to fertilize the ovule, the stimulus is in- sufficient, the operation languid, and the fertilization weak and inade- quate to give a healthy constitution. It has been generally observed that hybrid fertilization is slower than natural fertilization, and that often a much smaller number of ovules are vivified." (p. ii.) Herbert comments shrewdly on Knight's report as to having "given at the same time the curl of one cabbage and the red color of another to a third variety." (p. 12.) This Herbert considers to have been impossible, if it was supposed to have been effected by one fertilization. "He might easily have obtained the twofold features by two successive crosses, but I believe not in one generation by simultaneous application of different pollens : for I do not think that two grains even of the same pollen can get effectual access to the foramen of one and the same ovule." {ib., p. 12.) Herbert did much work, both of a systematic sort and by way of crossing, upon the Amaryllidaceae, the species chiefly utilized belonging to the genera Hippeastrum, Crinum and Hymenocallis^ the genus Narcissus being also rather extensively dealt with. In December, 1819, Herbert made a communication to the Horticul- tural Society of London (Vol. 4, pp. 15-50), entitled "On the production of hybrid vegetables ; with the result of experiments made in the investigation of the subject," in which a number of observations are made of some genetic value. For the most part, the article consists of an account of various interesting crosses with a number of genera of ornamental bulbous plants, together with some discussion of the species question, and of the fact of sterility in certain crosses. The case is reported of a cross by Knight, between a smooth cabbage (female) and a curled and red cabbage (male), in which the curled leaf character and the red color both appeared in the seedlings. The state of knowledge concerning fertilization is indicated by Herbert's discussion of the subject. Seeds originally exist in the "germen." During the maturation of the stigma, the germen and seeds grow until the PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL loi stigma reaches maturity, when the "germen" generally ceases to grow, and unless it receives the "congenial dust" it fails. Herbert then raises the question, how it is that a seed can draw from the plant the nourishment necessary for its growth up to a certain point, and yet be unable to obtain the further support necessary to bring it to maturity. His opinion follows : "I suspect the fact to be," he says, "that as long as the style remains fresh the seed receives a portion of its nourishment by a return of the sap from the style and stigma ; and thus continues to advance rapidly in growth without any fecundation : but I apprehend that, during that period, it is only that part of the seed, which is to form the cotyledon, or seedling leaf, that grows, and that the actual germ of the young plant does not exist completely till after the fecundation of the stigma, when I conceive it to be actually formed by an union of the substance trans- mitted through the vessels of the style, and that which was already with the cotyledon, and thus partake of the type of both parents." (2a, p. 29.) "If," Herbert further comments, "the fecundation only gave the embryo a stimulus to excite it to draw nourishment," then, the male type would not be evident in the offspring. He further de- cides upon the necessity of the pollen as the source of the male contribution, on the basis of the fact which he had observed that, in the case of seeds apparently perfect, where the stigma had not been pollinated, or had been pollinated with pollen from a plant not sufficiently related, "on opening such seeds, there is a total deficiency of the germ, the seed being an inert lump, which cannot vegetate." (2a, p. 29.) Herbert alludes to the idea, which he says was somewhat prevalent, that if plant hybrids are fertile, their progeny will re- vert to the type of the female parent. (2a, p. 40.) This he holds to be extremely improbable, and, if true, almost inexplicable, the reason being that, if fertile, they can be fecundated by pollen from either parent. The careful perusal of the entire body of William Herbert's contributions shows the operation of a careful, logical, strong, and able mind, which, within the entire limit of its opportunity, made thorough and conscientious efforts in the breeding of plants, and secured considerable results of much interest, and made many acute and shrewd observations of a botanical nature. The services which Dean Herbert rendered plant breeding, con- sisted notably in the clear and intelligent manner in which he 102 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL contended, contrary to Knight and many others, that species and varieties were but arbitrary and artificial distinctions in the plant kingdom, so far as hybridization was concerned, and that the idea of determining whether "species" were such, or only "varieties," through the relative fertility of their hybrid offspring, was an error, since ". . . species and varieties are but intergrading types. The species of botanists and the permanent local varieties are not essentially different in their nature, but are variations induced by causes more or less remote in the period of their operation, though the features of their diversity may be severally more or less important, and they differ from accidental varieties in the permanent habit of similar reproduction, w^hich they have acquired from soil and climate, and that after a long succession of ages." He was a close and keen observer, inclining toward experi- mentation with ornamental flowers, as did Knight toward ex- periments with horticultural fruits. He also calls for mention as the first English-speaking investigator to notice the work of Kol- reuter. 14. John Goss and Alexander Seton. Besides the work of Knight and Herbert, an experiment with garden peas from the first half of the nineteenth century, which has elicited considerable interest, also because of its suggestion of the later discoveries of Mendel, is that of John Goss, of Hath- erleigh, in Devonshire, England. In the summer of 1820, Goss pollinated flowers of the "Blue Prussian" variety with pollen of a dwarf pea known as "Dwarf Spanish," obtaining, as the result of the cross, three pods of hybrid seeds. In the spring of 1821, when he opened these pods for planting, he was surprised to find that the color of the seeds (i.e., of the cotyledons), instead of being a deep blue like those of the female parent, was yellowish-white like that of the male. Here was evidently a case of complete dominance of yellow-white over blue cotyledons. However, the plants growing from these seeds "produced some pods with all blue, some with all white, and many with both blue and white seeds in the same pod." Here was evidently a plain discovery of the fact of segregation, accord- ing to what later became known as Mendel's law. The following spring (1822) he separated the blue peas from the white, sowing the seeds of each color in separate rows. He found the blue seeds. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 103 which would now be called the recessives, produced in turn only blue seeds, while the white seeds, or dominants, "yielded some pods with all white, and some with both blue and white peas intermixed." Here, then, is the typical case of the segregation from the heterozygotes of hybrid dominants, without of course statistical data. Although Goss, in this experiment, undoubtedly made evident the facts of dominance and segregation, he did not recognize them as such, nor did he apparently, sow the seeds of his different plants separately, or make counts as did Mendel, of the numbers of seeds of the two colors found on each separate plant. Goss was chiefly interested in the question of the possibility of the "new va- riety" having superior value as an edible pea, and remarked that, in case it possessed no superior merit, there might yet be "some- thing in its history that will emit a ray of physiological light." However, the "physiological light" did not appear until after the rediscovery of Mendel's papers in 1900. The paper of John Goss was read before the Horticultural Society, October 15, 1822. (i.) At the meeting of the 20th of August preceding, a communica- tion was read on the same subject from Alexander Seton. Seton had pollinated the flowers of the "Dwarf Imperial," a green- seeded pea, with the pollen of a tall white-seeded variety. One pod with four peas was produced, all of which were green, pos- sibly the dominance of green cotyledon color over its absence (white). The plants growing from the four peas (F^ seeds) were intermediate in size between the two parents ; and the pods, on ripening, ". . , instead of their containing peas like those of either parent, or of an appearance between the two, almost every one of them had some peas of the full green color of the Dwarf Imperial, and others of the whitish color of that with which it had been impregnated, mixed indiscrimi- nately, and in undefined numbers ; they were all completely either of one color or of the other, none of them Waving an intermediate tint." (5, P- 237-) Here again are recorded the phenomena of dominance and of segregation, but owing to the fact that the numbers of the seeds were not counted, the results were not available for scientific purposes, nor would they have aroused attention, any more than those of Goss, except for Mendel's work later. 104 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 15. The Experiments of Thomas Laxton. In 1872, Thomas Laxton published, in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, results of hybridization experiments, entitled "Notes on Some Changes and Variations in the Offspring of Cross-fertilized Peas" (4b), which have several points of dis- tinct interest: first, in that the fact of dominance in color and form of the seeds was brought out; second, from the fact that, to a certain limited extent, a statement of numerical results was attempted. The results in neither of these were sufficient to con- stitute a scientific experiment, but the work as a whole gives evidence of care, close observation, and some thought. Among the several reported pieces of experimental work with peas before Mendel, Laxton's is perhaps to be commended as being more nearly of an exact nature, and is also interesting from the fact that it constitutes the last experimental work in the hybridization of peas, published before the final re-appearance of Mendel's papers themselves. Laxton says : "since the year 1858, I have been carrying on continued and successive courses of experiments in cross-fertilizing the cultivated varieties of the Pea, partly with a view to produce improved characters, and partly for the purpose of noting the results of artificial impregnation on a genus of plants, which, although not absolutely beyond the reach of accidental cross-fertilization, is, for most practical purposes, sufficiently free from it to make the changes produced by artificial impregnation approximately reliable, at all events more so than in the majority of genera." (4b, p. 10.) Laxton, at the time of his experiments, was not aware of the work of Knight with peas some fifty years previously. In 1866, a cross was made upon an early, white-flowered variety, known as "Ringleader," with round, white seeds, and growing to a height of about 2^ feet, by a purple-flowered variety known as "Maple," with slightly indented seeds, and taller than the pre- ceding. This produced one pod, containing five round, white peas like those of the female parent, the ordinary result. The seeds of the parent variety known as "Maple" are not described, but the results leave it to be inferred that the seed-coat color was grayish- purple, whence the name. In 1867, the five seeds of the F^ gen- eration produced "tall, purple-flowered, purplish-stemmed" plants, and the seeds, "with few exceptions," had "maple or brownish- streaked seed-coats." The remainder are reported with "entirely violet or deep purple-colored envelopes" (the ordinary dominant for seed-coat color in the F^). The dominance of roundness in PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 105 the first generation was followed in the second (the F^ for the seed-coats) by segregation, which is recorded by Laxton, to the effect that "in shape, the peas were partly indented ; but a few were round." (4b, p. 11.) The lack of a proper ratio in this case, of 3 round to 1 in- dented, was probably due to the small number of plants involved. In 1868 (the Fo for flower and seed-coat color), Laxton says: "Some of the plants had light-colored stems and leaves; these all showed white flowers and produced round white seeds. Others had purple flowers, showed the purple on the stems and at the axils of the stipules, and produced seeds with maple, grey, purple-streaked, or mottled, and a few only, again, with violet-colored envelopes." (4b, p. 11.) It is further stated that: "The pods on each plant, in the majority of instances, contained peas of like characters ; but in a few cases the peas in the same pod varied slightly, and in some instances a pod or two on the same plant contained seeds all distinct from the remainder." (4b, p. 11.) It is reported that the white-flowered plants of the Fo were "generally dwarfish, of about the height of 'Ringleader,' but the colored- flowered sorts varied altogether as to height, period of ripening, and color and shape of seed." (p. 11.) There would appear to be here some evidence of partial link- age of height with white flower and seed-coat color. The outline of the results of Laxton's cross, stated in modern terms, is as follows : 1866 Parents ''Ringleader' "Maple' Flowers — white Flowers — purple Seed-coats — white Seed-coats — "maple" Cotyledons — round Cotyledons — indented Height — 2i^ feet Height — taller than "Ringleader" Progeny 1866. F, (for cotyledons) Cotyledons — round 1867. F, (for flower color and seed-coat color) Flowers — purple Seed-coats (1) (2) ("a few") Maple or brownish-streaked Violet or deep purple Cotyledons — partly indented ; a few round Height — tall io6 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 1868. F, (,) (2) ("a few only") Flowers — purple Flowers — purple Seed-coats — maple-grey, purple- Seed-coats — violet streaked, or mottled Cotyledons — round or partially Cotyledons — round or partially in- indented dented Height — variable Height — variable (3) Flowers — white Seed-coats — white Cotyledons — round Height — same as "Ringleader" (4) (on some of the purple-flowered plants) (4—0 (4—2) Seeds not described; presumably (A few pods on each plant) shades of maple, etc. Seed-coats all white (some pods) Seed-coats black (others) Seed-coats violet (a few) 1869. F3 Progeny of (1) (1 — 1) ("majority") (1 — 2) (minority) Flowers — purple Flowers — purple Seed-coats — purple or grey Seed-coats — maple or brown- streaked Cotyledons — round or only par- Cotyledons — round or only par- tially indented tially indented Progeny of (2) (2 — 1) ("almost invariably") (2 — 2) ("now and then") Flowers — purple Flowers — purple Seed-coats — purplish-grey, or maple Seed-coats — clear violet ("either wholly in one pod, or only a single pea in a pod") Cotyledons — round or only par- Cotyledons — round or only par- tially indented tially indented Progeny of (3) (all) Flowers — white Seed-coats — white Cotyledons — round As the seeds of the F2 generation (reported as a "few only"), with "violet-colored envelopes," as distinguished from the ma- jority having maple-grey and mottled seed-coats, these, when again sown, are reported as producing "nearly all maple or particolored seeds, and only here and there one with a violet- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 107 colored envelope." The violet seed-coat color is also reported as having "appeared only incidentally, and in a like degree in the produce of the maple-colored seeds." (4b, p. 11.) In the following year, 1869, the seeds of the different types of the preceding year were again sown separately. The white- seeded peas again produced only plants with white flowers and round white seeds. Some of the colored seeds, which Laxton said he had expected would produce purple-flowered plants, produced plants with white flowers, and round, white seeds only (in other words recessives). The majority of the colored seeds, however, produced plants with purple flowers, and seeds "principally marked with purple or grey, the maple or brown-streaked being in the minority." {ib.^ p. 11.) It is stated that in some pods the seeds were all white, in others all black, and in a few all violet, and again that: ". . . those plants which bore maple-colored seeds seemed the most constant and fixed in character of the purple-flowered seedlings; and the purplish and grey peas, being of intermediate characters, appeared to vary most. The violet-colored seeds produced almost invariably pur- plish, grey or maple peas, the clear, violet color only now and then ap- pearing, either wholly in one pod, or a single pea or two in a pod." The purple-flowered plants are stated to produce from the 1869 sowing, seeds that were "either round or only partly indented," the plants vary- ing as to height and time of maturity, {ib., p. 12.) Laxton also records the important fact that "in no case, however, does there seem to have been an intermediate- colored flower ... I have never noticed a single tinted white flower nor an indented white seed in either of the three years' produce." {ib., p. 12.) The quantities of the different colors produced in the seeds of the 1869 plants, are reported as being, in order of their amounts, as follows : "First, white, about half; second, purplish, grey, and violet (inter- mediate colors) about three-eighths ; third, maple, about one-eighth." (p. 12.) True ratios are, of course, not derivable, on account of the small numbers involved. Laxton's own conclusion as to the par- ental types is as follows : That the white-flowered, white-seeded pea is "an original variety, well fixed and distinct entirely from the maple, that the maple is a cross-bred variety which has become somewhat permanent and would seem to in- clude amongst its ancestors one or more bearing seeds either altogether or partly violet- or purple-colored." {ib., p. 12.) io8 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL From Laxton's cross of 1866, it appears that dominance of round form for cotyledons was evident in the cross, since he says : "This cross produced a pod containing five round, white peas, exactly like the ordinary 'Ringleader' seeds." {ib., p. 10.) Purple flower color, and color in the seed-coats, was dominant in the 1867-grown plants. The seed-coat color of the F^^, however, which was "maple" in the male parent, split into maple (the majority), and violet or deep-purple (a few), in the following generation, grown in 1868. The F2 progeny, in 1868, split up into plants with purple flowers and colored seed-coats, and a recessive with white flowers and white seed-coats, which latter bred true in 1868 and 1869. Of the purple-flowered progeny of the F2, the seed-coats were mostly- maple or some modification of it. A few had violet seed- coats. The former, in 1869, split into a majority with seed-coats purple or grey, and only a minority maple or brown-streaked. The "few" in the F2 with violet seed-coats, split, in the F3, into (almost entirely) purplish-grey or maple, with occasional ones violet again. Without further speculation as to the probabilities in respect to the original maple seed-coat color, which Laxton was dealing with in the male parent of the cross, the facts above are given for whatever interest they may have. It should be men- tioned that the seeds, in what we know as the Fg generation, are described as being "partly indented, a few round." It is not clear whether Laxton meant by "partly indented," the same thing as in the description "slightly indented,"' by which the seeds of the original "Maple" parent are described. It may be taken to mean simply that a part of the seeds were indented ; a few round. The expectation would have been, "mostly round, a few indented," to use Laxton's manner of describing. The dominance of taljness in the F^ is shown, and the clear segregation out of dwarf with white flower color and white seed- coats in the F2. Laxton adds that he had derived from his experiments the same conclusion as Knight and others: "That the colors of the envelopes of the seeds of peas immediately resulting from a cross are never changed." (p. 12.) He states also: "I find, however, that the color and probably the substance of the cotyle- dons are sometimes, but not always, changed by the cross-fertilization of two different varieties." (p. 12.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 109 One of the most striking features of Laxton's paper is the fol- lowing remarkable, detailed observation, distinctly Mendelian in character, and one which should entitle the paper to especial in- terest. He says : "l have also noticed that a cross between a round white and a blue wrinkled pea, will in the third and fourth generations (second and third year's produce) at times bring forth blue round, blue wrinkled, white round, and white wrinkled peas in the same pod, that the white round seeds when again sown, will produce only white round seeds, that the white wrinkled seeds will, up to the fourth or fifth generation, pro- duce both blue and white wrinkled and round peas, that the blue round peas will produce blue wrinkled and round peas, but that the blue wrinkled peas will bear only blue wrinkled seeds." (p. 13.) There does not exist anywhere, in the pre-Mendelian literature, any other similar, clear, distinct, or detailed statement of an ob- servation of segregation involving two pairs of characters. So far as it has come to the knowledge of the writer, there exists no similar observation, or one of equal value, or so closely approxi- mating an analytical statement, preceding Mendel's account. It is interesting to trace, in Laxton's conclusions from the above, the manner in which the logic of the situation appealed to his mind. "This would seem to indicate," he says, "that the white round and the blue wrinkled peas, are distinct varieties derived from ancestors respectively possessing only one of these marked quali- ties." (p. 13.) This in itself is a genetic conclusion. In Mendel's case, such a fact pointed to the purity of the gametes. To Laxton's mind, it indicated a pure line of similar ancestors — the same thing in principle, but less analytically stated. Laxton is interested more in the ancestors than in the manner of transmission ; Mendel in the mechanism of the transmission itself. Thus Laxton says: "In my opinion the white round peas trace their origin to a dwarfish pea having white flowers and round white seeds, and the blue wrinkled varieties to a tall variety having also white flowers, but blue wrinkled seeds." (p. 13.) One of the principal objectives of the early breeders was to ascertain when and how a "variety" could be "fixed." Laxton con- cludes that three or four years is ", . . the shortest time which I have ascertained it takes to attain the no PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL climax of variation in the produce of cross-fertilized peas, and until which time it would seem useless to expect a fixed seedling variety to be produced, although a reversion to the characters of either parent, or any one of the ancestors, may take place at an earlier period." (p. 13.) Laxton's purely botanical attitude toward the matter is well brought out in his final statement : ". . . in conclusion I may, perhaps, in furtherance of the objects of this paper, be permitted to inquire whether any light can, from these observations or other means, be thrown upon the origin of the cultivated kinds of peas, especially the 'maple' variety, and also as to the source whence the violet and other colors, which appear at intervals on the seeds and in the offspring of the cross-fertilized purple-flowered peas, are derived." (p. 14.) 16. The Experiments of Patrick Skirreff. Before closing an account of the early English hybridizers, it is proper to add an account of the work carried on in the breeding of wheat by Patrick Shirreff of Scotland, recorded in his brief memoir, "Improvement of the cereals and an essay on the wheat-fly," published at Edinburgh and London, in 1873. These experiments began in 1819, with a series of pure line selections of wheat and oats, and concluded with hybridization experiments. The fact that Shirreff appears not only to have been the first experimenter of any consequence with the cereals to follow the principle of selecting only pure lines, and the fact that he was the first considerable hybridizer of wheat, make it desirable to include an account of his series of experiments for the sake of their historical value, as well as because of their not inconsid- erable practical success. The circumstance that dominance in cer- tain cases was reported, even if not further commented upon, is interesting as a matter of record. In the spring of 1819, when walking over a field of wheat, on the farm of Mungoswells, in the County of Haddington, Scot- land, Shirreff noticed "a green spreading plant" which attracted his notice, "the crop then looking miserable from the effects of a severe winter." At harvest time 63 heads were harvested, yield- ing 2,473 grains. These were dibbled in, the following autumn, at wide intervals. For two succeeding seasons, the seed was sown broadcast, and the first harvest of the progeny of the original plant amounted to 336 bushels. In the summer of 1824, "a tall oat plant was observed on a -ii-f-^^. Plate XXV. Patrick Shirreff. 112 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL field of the cereal, on the farm of Mungoswells." (6, p. 2.) The seeds from this plant were grown in a collection of named vari- eties. At harvest, the crop from the plant proved to be the tallest in the collection. The variety was then raised, and introduced under the name of Hopetoun oat. In the fall of 1832 "a fine ear of wheat was found on the farm of Drum, which adjoins Mungosv/ells. This ear originally con- tained one hundred and two grains." The progeny from the head became the Hopetoun wheat. "The grain is rather large, white and heavy, the ear is handsome and its chaff white." ... (6, p. 4.) "This variety found its way into many of the wheat-growing districts of Britain, and over a wide range of country and climate. It succeeded better than some of the white varieties originated in Scotland, which became so high colored when grown in the south of England, as not to be classed in that country as white wheat." {ib., p. 4.) "The next cereal," ShirrefT says, "which I selected, raised and intro- duced into full practice, was the Shirreff oat, which ripens early, and is reported to be very prolific." {ib., p. 5.) "Hitherto," he remarks, "I had followed the improvement of the cereals by fits and starts, on the spur of the moment; but in 1856, some- thing like a continued and systematic investigation of the subject was begun." (p. 5.) He proceeded to examine the wheat fields on both sides of the Tweed, especially in East Lothian, and selected many heads which differed from the general crop. "My experimental plot of wheat for 1857," he says, "contained plants from the seeds of more than seventy ears, which had been selected dur- ing the previous years." {ib., p. 6.) From the many strains originating from the first year's selec- tions, three kinds only were propagated. The names given to them were "Shirreff's Bearded Red," "Shirreff's Bearded White," and "Pringles." Shirreff now found that the limitations of time and space made it necessary to restrict the number of strains experimented with. The following interesting account is given of what is prob- ably the first systematic planting of plots for the experimental growing of pure strains of wheat. "My comparative trial-plot of wheat might be described thus: On a field cropped with wheat, named and unnamed varieties were grown in parallel pairs, from twelve to fifteen feet long, and from nine to twelve inches broad, with a foot-path a yard wide, surrounding the whole plot. . . . From time to time, notes were made regarding each kind, PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 113 such as their time of ripening, length of stem, etc. By such means, the new varieties could be more readily distinguished from the old, and twice-naming detected, as the effects of soil and seasons upon the differ- ent kinds approximated. . . . Then, commencing on one side, the seeds were placed by the hand at a given thickness, and each variety covered with earth before another was planted. By proceeding in this manner, the seeds were placed in the soil at nearly equal depths and distances, and the different varieties kept from intermixing in the process of sow- ing." {ib., pp. 8-9.) By i860, "Shirreff's Bearded Red" had increased until it amounted to twelve acres. In i860, the trial wheat plots contained seed from eighty-four heads. By this time, Shirreff had become well known, so that heads of wheat were being sent to him by many persons from different places, the seeds of which found their way into his experimental plots. "In 1862, an attempt was made to improve oats." (p. 12.) From fields in the neighborhood of Haddington selected heads were taken. In 1864, the more promising kinds were included in this trial plot along with eighteen named varieties. Ultimately, four of the selections were propagated, under the names of "Early Fellow," "Fine Fellow," "Long Fellow," and "Early Angus." Shirreff had by this time come to the following conclusion : "Many people believe that some plants can be altered by skilful treatment, but my experience had tended to show that there is no way of permanently improving a species but by a new variety. In support of the view of plant improving, gardeners can point to- hosts of new and improved varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, while, to corrobo- rate, farmers can bring forward the Chevalier Barley, Swede Turnip, Italian rye-grass and the Alsike Clover. To this' principle of improvement the cereals form no exception ; and the small amelioration which they have undergone in this age of progress, may fitly be attributed to the apathy of corn growers in this department of agriculture." {ib., pp. 14-18.) "New varieties of the cereals," Shirreff says, "can annually be obtained from three sources — from crossing, from natural sports, and from for- eign countries." {ib., p. 18.) Shirreff's technique in the crossing of wheat may be of interest to breeders of this cereal. "Before commencing to cross," he says, "consider what properties the new variety is wished to inherit; and fix upon such kinds as possess in the highest degree the desired properties." {ib., p. 22.) A day or two after the head emerged from the sheath, the head was shortened, every alternate spikelet was removed, and only the two lateral or outside flowers of each spikelet were allowed 114 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL to grow. Such a head would consist of four to six spikelets with eight to twelve flowers. The head of the plant intended to be used as the pollen parent was then brought, the anthers removed from the flowers of the proposed female parent, and the anthers from the head of wheat intended for the male parent were removed and placed within the glumes of the emasculated flower. It was recom- mended that two persons work in cooperation, one to hold open the chaff-scales or glumes, the other to remove and replace the anthers with a pair of forceps. The head thus pollinated was then fastened to a stake and enveloped in wire gauze as protec- tion against being rubbed against by other heads, and against birds. It is interesting to note the subsequent care with which the hybrid seeds were treated : "As soon as the grains obtained by crossing become dry, place them in thumb pots in a garden, protecting them from birds and insects by sprigs of furze spread on the surface, and by a few coal ashes in the bottom, and afterwards remove the plants to where they were intended to be grown. This plan prevents the intermixing of kinds, and generally the attacks of insects residing in the soil, or frequenting the air, in the early stages of the plants' growth." {ib., p. 24.) "The inflorescence of oats and barley being wintered with wheat, the crossing of these cereals can be effected in like manner as with wheat." {ib., p. 24.) . Knight's experiments in the crossing of wheat are quoted by Shirreff as follows {ib., p. 27) : "I readily obtained as many varieties as I wished, by merely sowing the different kinds together; for the structure of the blossom of this plant, unlike that of the pea, freely admits of adventitious farina, and is thereby very liable to sport varieties. Some of those I obtained were excellent, others very bad, and none of them permanent. By separating the first varieties, a most abundant crop was produced, but in quality was not equal to the quantity ; and all the discarded varieties again and again made their appearance. It appeared to me an extraordinary cir- cumstance, that in the years of 1795 and 1796, when almost all the whole corn of the island was blighted, the varieties thus obtained only escaped in this neighborhood when sown on different soils and situations." Knight is referred to by Shirreff as "the first individual in Britain known to have crossed wheat." {ib., p. 26.) A Mr. Raynbird, who competed for a medal given by the High- land Society of Scotland with a wheat obtained by hybridization, known as "Raynbird's Hybrid," was, as Shirreff says, ". . . perhaps the first person who offered a hybrid or cross-bred wheat to the notice of the British farmers." {ib., p. 8.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 115 Regarding his own crossing Shirreff says : "One of my first attempts at crossing was made with April and Tala- vera varieties, the latter being the pollen parent." Regarding the hybrid he says : "The plant from cross-fecundation appeared to be an intermediate between the breeders." {ib., p. 28.) Between Shirreff's first and second attempts at the crossing of wheat a period of nearly twenty years intervened. The technique developed by Shirreff in his wheat crossing ex- periments is further described as follows : "The valves of the chaff were opened, and the anthers removed one by one with the point of a needle. Three or four days afterwards, accord- ing to the state of the weather, the valves of the chaff were again opened, and the stigma touched with a camel's-hair brush covered with pollen from the anthers of the male breeder. From the opening and closing of the chaff valves," Shirreff says, "they frequently dropped off after fe- cundation had been effected ; and scarcely one attempt in ten ended suc- cessfully until the method described at page 21 was adopted, which so changed matters that three attempts out of four proved successful." {ib., pp. 29-30.} "For some time," Shirreff says, "my cross-fecundations produced noth- ing very striking, until a variety in my comparative trial-plot attracted notice, from the size of ear, and the length and strength of the straw, when ripe, the grains were found to be fine in quality, and it was de- cided to raise a stock from it for field practice." (ib., p. 31.) The variety in question was produced by crossing "Shirreff's Bearded White" with pollen from "Talavera," with a view to enlarging the seeds of the Bearded White, which were small and round. The hybrid was called "King Richard," and was found to be intermediate between the parents in form of ear, while ap- proaching the Talavera in size and form. In tillering habit it was intermediate. Shirreff, of course, knew nothing of the laws of segregation, and a hybrid once obtained was for him always a hybrid. The "mixed ears," spoken of as appearing in the progeny, were prob- ably the segregating forms. Shirreff s^ys : "These mixed ears in all probability are owing to the hybridous origin of King Richard, and are not likely to be got rid of without rais- ing a stock again from a single grain, and when necessary doing so again and again." {ib., p. 31.) By such selection he originated a new strain called "King Red Chaff White," which was exhibited in bulk for the first time in 1870. Regarding it he says: ii6 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "Altogether, I am at present disposed to regard King Red Chaff White as perhaps one of the best wheats I have sowed." {ib., p. 3.) Shirreff also crossed Talavera, which has white chaff, with a variety with small white seeds and red chaff. In this hybrid he makes perhaps the first reference to color dominance in the chaff of wheat. "The plant from the seed, in form of ear and seed, closely resembled Talavera, but the color of the chaff was red." (ib., p. 33.) The dominance of downy chaff over smooth chaff, was also recorded as follows : "A downy-chaffed variety with tall straw, which had been selected from Hopetoun, was fecundated with pollen from Talavera, and the re- sult was a constant variety with the downy chaff and fine straw of the seed parent." (ib., p. 33.) Shirreff records (pp. 34-5) his observations on the natural crossing of wheat in the field. "Having satisfied myself of the possibility of changing the seeds and external characteristics of the wheat plant by crossing, I resolved to attempt altering the habit of ripening." {ib., p. 36.) For this purpose he used a spring wheat known as Tuscany, brought originally from New Zealand. Tuscany wheat was found to ripen eight or ten days earlier than other kinds grown by him. In 1869, he crossed Tuscany with King Richard and with Tala- vera, with the object of improving the straw and grain of the former variety, but of introducing its earlier ripening. From the cross with King Richard he obtained earlier seeds, which were planted in thumb pots. These were taken to the field, and six plants finally came to harvest. The cross from Tuscany with Talavera produced one plant. In 1811, these first-generation hybrids were harvested. Shirreff, of course, assumed that the new types thus appearing were as likely to be fixed in type as the parents. Shirreff records, that of the seven first-generation hybrids, five were summer and two winter wheat. Out of over eighty wheat plants resulting from hybridization, he reports that he grew, in 1872, upwards of forty. As to the seldom occurrence of natural crossing, Shirreff notes : "if varieties growing contiguous are always instrumental in fecunda- ing one another, my experimental plots must have long since become a PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 117 heterogeneous mass, when between one and two hundred sets have been grown within a foot of each other for nearly fourteen years." ShirrefF remarks pointedly upon the necessity for the final test of the product, as the criterion of science In the improvement of wheat. "One of the chief difficulties which an individual experiences when improving the plant, is to ascertain the quality of the grain or the flour produced from it. . . . In an inquiry of this nature, the aid of the chemist is thought to be of little avail, and the baker's bread, taking color, quality, and quantity into consideration, is a more satisfactory test to the farmer." (p. 62.) "In carrying out the improvement of cereals, the selecting of varieties may be considered an important step; and the object in all probability, will be sooner accomplished and better controlled, by first creating a diversity, which can easily be effected by crossing. . . . Crossing tends to produce variation in kinds not given to sporting, and in this respect it has much advantage over the system of improvement by merely select- ing from the crops of the farm. A new and important source of varia- tion is opened up by crossing, but a judicious improver of the cereals will never overlook this interesting proceeding. Always cross with the seedlings which inherit in the greatest degree the properties you wish a cereal to possess, and by persevering for a series of years to select, and by crossing in this manner, success in all probability will be ulti- mately attained." (p. 95.) BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Goss, John. On the variation in the color of peas, occasioned by cross- impregnation. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, 5:234, 1824. 2. Herbert, William. (a) On the production of hybrid vegetables, with the result of many experiments made 4n the investigation of the subject. Transactions, Horticultural Society of London, 4:15-50, 1819. (b) On crosses and hybrid intermixtures in vegetables, pp. 335-80 fat end of 2c). (c) Amaryllidaceae ; preceded by an attempt to arrange the Monocotyledonous orders, and followed by a treatise Ii8 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL on cross-bred vegetables, and supplement, pp. 1-334- London, 1837. (d) On hybridization amongst vegetables. Journal of the Horticultural Society. 2:1-28, 81-107. 1847. 3. Knight^ Thomas Andrew. (a) An account of some experiments of the fecundation of vegetables. Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society of London, Part I, pp. 19^-204. 1799. (b) Observations on the method of producing new and early fruits. Transactions, Horticultural Society of London, l:pp. 30-40. November 4, 1806. (c) On the comparative influence of male and female par- ents on their offspring. Transactions, Royal Society, 1 :pp. 392-9, 1809. Read June 22, 1809. (d) Observations on hybrids. Transactions, Horticultural Society of London, 4:367-73, 1821. (e) An account of some mule plants. Transactions, Horti- cultural Society of London, 5:292-6, 1823. (f) Some remarks on the supposed influence of the pollen, in cross-breeding, upon the color of the seed-coats of plants, and the qualities of their fruits. Transactions, Horticultural Society of London, 5 '377-80, 1823, June 3. (g) A selection from the physiological and horticultural papers published in the Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies, by the late Thomas Andrew Knight, to which is added a sketch of his life. London, 1841. 4. Laxton^ Thomas. (a) Observations on the variations effected by crossing in the color and character of the seed of peas. Report of the International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress, May 22-31, 1866. (p. 156.) (b) Notes on some changes and variations in the offspring of cross-fertilized peas. Journal of the Royal Horticul- tural Society, 3:10-14, 1872. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 119 5. Seton, Alexander. On the variation in the color of peas from cross-impregna- tion. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, 5:236, 1824. 6. Skirreff, Patrick. Improvement of the cereals and an essay on the wheat fly. Edinburgh and London, 1873. CHAPTER V THE WORK OF THE FRENCH HYBRIDISTS 17. The Experiments of Sageret. DURING the time of the prosecution of the work of Knight and Herbert there appeared the results in hybridization obtained by Sageret in France. Augustin Sageret was born at Paris, July 27, 1763. He was a naturalist and practical agronomist, was one of the founders of the Society of Horticulture of Paris, and a member of the Royal Society of /\griculture, afterwards called the Academy of xAgri- culture. He was author of an agronomic survey of the canton of Lorris, where he settled at the age of fifty-six, to take up and bring into condition an agricultural domain of 750 acres. He had the honor of having the genus Sageretia named after him by Brogniart. His death occurred in 1851. Sageret's experiments in crossing were largely confined to the Cucurbitaceae, and his results were published in a memoir, en- titled "Considerations sur la production des hybrides, des vari- antes et des varietes en general, et sur celles de la famille des Cucurbitacees en particulier," which appeared in 1826, in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Yol. 8. (C-) Sageret made some discoveries that clearly anticipate our mod- ern knowledge of segregation, and he was able to furnish what was, for the time, a fairly satisfactory scientific explanation for the reappearance of ancestral characters. The experiment upon which his conclusions were primarily based was a cross, in which a muskmelon was the female, and a cantaloupe the male parent. Each plant was regarded as a relatively pure type-representative of its kind. In stating the results of the cross, Sageret for the first time, so far as the writer knows, in the history of plant hybridization, aligned the characters of the parents in opposing or contrasting pairs, after Mendel's fashion forty years later. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 121 Following is the list of contrasting parental characters, as Sageret gives them: Muskmelon Cantaloupe (Female) {Male) 1. flesh white 1. flesh yellow 2. seeds white 2. seeds yellow 3. skin smooth 3- skin netted 4. ribs slightly evident 4- ribs strongly pronounced 5- flavor sugary, and very acid at the same time 5. flavor sweet Sageret remarks : "The assumed product of the crosses made ought to have been inter- rnediate : 1 — flesh very pale yellow; 2 — seeds very pale yellow; 3 — net- ting light ; 4 — ribs slightly marked ; 5 — flavor at once sweet and sprightly : but the contrary was the case." (5, p. 303.) As a matter of fact, in the two hybrid fruits reported upon, the characters were not blended or intermediate at all, but were clearly and distinctly those of the one or the other parent. first hybrid second hybrid 1. flesh yellow 1. flesh yellowish 2. seeds white 2. seeds white 3. skin netted 3. skin smooth 4. ribs rather pronounced 4. ribs wanting 5. flavor acid 5. flavor sweet In the further support of his conclusions regarding the descent of characters in unitary fashion, he remarks upon the inheritance of human hair and eye-color, in the mating of a brunette with a blonde type. Sageret remarks upon the fact that such hybrids are types, of which he had "several times obtained the analogues or their equivalent." While there is fusion here and there, he says, "one sees here a much more marked distribution of their diflFerent characters without any mixture between them." (5, p. 303.) He even uses for the first time in the literature of plant hybridiza- tion, the word "dominate" with reference to characters in cross- ing, in the following words. Speaking of the inheritance of flavor in various melon crosses, he says : "The acid flavor of the muskmelon is encountered in the form of the cantaloupe and the snake-melon ; in others, the form of the cantaloupe dominated." (5, p. 307.) Summing up the results of his experiments in a general con- clusion, he says, with regard to the natural expectation that in 122 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL a hybrid there will be a complete or partial fusion of the parental characters, that: "This fusion of characters may take place in certain cases ; but it has appeared to me that, in general, things did not take place in this way," and again : "It has appeared to me that, in general, the resemblance of the hybrid to its two ascendants consisted, not in an intimate fusion of the diverse characters peculiar to each one of them in particular, but rather in a distribution, equal, or unequal, of the same characters." (5, p. 302.) Here we meet, for the first time in the literature of hybridiza- tion, the phrase "distribution of characters" now so familiar. "These facts," Sageret remarks, "have been confirmed by a mul- titude of my experiments." It is evident, from the following statement, that Sageret ap- praised his discovery of the dominance of characters in crossing at its proper value : "The ideas which I present," he says, "have appeared remarkable to me ; they seem to me to be of a very great importance." (5, p. 302.) In addition to his melon crosses, Sageret secured a hybrid be- tween a black radish and a cabbage, of which he writes : "Some of the fruits, instead of being intermediate, were like either cabbage or radish on the same inflorescence." (5, p. 297.) Each silique bore a single seed, analogous to its pod, to which he makes reference in a further comment upon "the distribution among hybrids of the characters of their ascendants without fusion of these characters" (5, p. 304) — a point of view with regard to the results of hybridization that needs little to make it modern. It is a matter of additional interest that Sageret was further able to derive a natural scientific conclusion from the facts of unit-character inheritance as he found them, with respect to the reappearance of old or the appearance of new "species." The hybrids "often reproduced for me," he says, "varieties which had long ago disappeared." (5» p. 304-) He finally concludes : "To what, then, does this faculty belong, which nature has of repro- ducing upon the descendants such or such a character, which had be- longed to their ancestors? We do not know: we are able, however, to suspect that it depends upon a type, upon a primitive mould, which contains the germ which sleeps and awakens, which develops or not according to circumstances, and possibly that which we call a new PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 123 species is only an old species in which develop organs ancient but for- gotten, or new organs, of which the germ existed, but of which the development had not yet been favored." (5, pp. 304-5.) The clear manner in which Sageret's mind rather instinctively seized the conception of the independent descent of characters is exemplified in a sentence in which he says that all plants, and possibly still more, hybrid plants, ". . . having the ability to recall, so to speak at will, without measure and indifferently, and independently of one another, the qualities of their ascendants, it is possible that some among them, illy assorted, should have left out all there was of good and have taken all there was of ill." (5:308.) 18. Godron and Naudin on Hybridization. In 1861, the Paris Academy of Sciences proposed the follow- ing problem to receive the grand prize in the physical sciences : "To study plant hybrids from the point of view of their fecundity, and of the perpetuity or non-perpetuity of their characters. "The production of hybrids amongst plants of different species of the same genus is a fact determined long since, but many precise re- searches still remain to be made in order to solve the following ques- tions, which have an interest equally from the point of view of general physiology, and of the determination of the limits of species, of the extent of their variations. 1. "in what cases of hybrids are they self-fertile ? Does this fecundity of hybrids stand in relation to the external resemblances of the species from which they come, or does it testify to a special affinity from the point of view of fertilization, as has been remarked regarding the ease of production of the hybrids themselves? 2. "Do self-sterile hybrids always owe their sterility to the imperfec- tion of the pollen *? Are the pistil and the ovules always suspectible of being fecundated by a foreign pollen, properly selected? Is an appreci- ably imperfect condition sometimes observed in the pistil and the ovules? 3. "Do hybrids, which reproduce themselves by their own fecundation, sometimes preserve invariable characters for several generations, and are they able to become the type of constant races, or do they always return, on the contrary, to the forms of their ancestors, after several generations, as recent observations seem to indicate ?" The two chief competitors under the Academy's offer were Charles Naudin, of the Museum of Natural History at Paris, and D. A. Godron, of the University of Nancy, the prize being awarded to the former. The papers of both appeared in Vol. 19 of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Botanique), 4me Serie, 1863. (2c, 4c.) The title of Godron's thesis was, "Des hybrides vegetaux, con- 124 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL siderees au point de vue de leur fecondite, et la perpetuite de leurs characteres." Godron. Godron's paper is chiefly devoted to the solution of the question ". . . whether hybrids reproducing by self-fertilization sometimes keep their characters invariable during several generations, and whether they are able to become the types of constant races, or whether, on the con- trary, they always return to the form of their ancestors at the end of several generations, as recent observations seem to indicate." Plate XXVI. D. A. Godron, 1807-1880, Professor at the University at Nancy. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 125 In answer to this query, he says : > "We have determined, upon hybrids of Linaria, that the hybrid forms may become very fertile, and that a certain number of individuals from the second generation return respectively to the two primitive types, Plate XXVII. Charles Naudin, 1815-1899. 126 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL when they grow In company with their parents, and this return move- ment manifests itself much more in the following generations." (2c, p. 174). Godron remarks that the same fact has been observed by Lecoq in the fertile hybrids of Mirabilis, by Naudin in the fertile hy- brids of Nicotia7ia, and by several observers in Primula and in Petunia. From these experiments, then, he considers the proof of the final return of fertile hybrids to their parental forms to be established. Godron was a victim of the rigid idea of species, which held that, because so many hybrids between different "species," so- called, were sterile, therefore any hybrid which turned out to be fertile must necessarily, ipso facto, prove the parents not to be of different species, but to be merely varieties of the same species. To the vain purpose of settling this verbal controversy, whether such and such plants were to be regarded as separate "species," or merely as "varieties" of the same species, many of the most ardent endeavors of hybridists, both before and since Mendel's time, have been conscientiously and duly devoted. A sample of this method of reasoning in a circle, so vigorously combatted by Herbert, and characterized by him as "fighting the air," is exemplified in a sentence of Godron's which typifies the general view at that time. He speaks of a "law which has its sanction in the numerous experiments which, for a century past, have been made by Kolreuter, Wiegmann, C. F. Gartner, etc., and by M. Naudin himself, that siinple hybrids are sterile or but little fertile." (2c, p. 139.) Considering the fact, however, that the hybrids between con- fessedly distinct species are so frequently sterile, it is not sur- prising that, in view of the then greater interest in the species question itself, hybridizers should have turned systematic bota- nists, and have made the sterility of the hybrid offspring a cri- terion of species distinction. Besides his competing memoir before the Paris Academy, God- ron was the author of several other contributions to the literature of plant hybridization, including that of the celebrated question as to the possible origin of cultivated wheat from the wild plant Aegilops ovata. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 127 In 1863, Godron (2) reported a series of observations upon the fecundity of hybrids. He investigated the question whether this fecundity, in succeeding generations, bore any relation to the ease with which the original hybridization was effected. From experiments with Verhascum hybrids he came to the conclusion that the fertility of hybrids does not always have any relation to the ease with which the cross is effected in the first instance. From investigations which Godron made upon the cause of steril- ity, he discovered that in some cases deformed and aborted pollen was not, as frequently, the cause, but that perfectly formed pol- len may be inactive. He raised the question whether ". . . the very great development which the organs of vegetation take on in simple hybrids of Verhascum, the numerous branches and the im- mense quantity of flowers which originate on these branches, would not exhaust the vegetative juices at the expense of the organs of reproduc- tion. Would there not be there a fact which the law of the balance of organs would explain, the force of which one so frequently determines as well in the plant as in the animal kingdom." (2c, p. 172.) Godron concludes, in general, that crosses of two races or vari- eties of the same species are characterized by absolute fertility, that the sterility of the simple hybrids is proof that they come from distinct species, and that crossing between two species of different "genera" is impossible. We thus see the trend of God- ron's mind — to establish by experiments in crossing the question of what constitutes a species, a point of view that has entirely disappeared today. At the present time, of course, no especial ac- count is necessarily taken in crossing as to the precise systematic position of the organisms which it is intended to cross. They may be different "varieties," or different "species," or even belong to different so-called "genera." Attention is necessarily directed pri- marily to the nature of the characters which it is desired to in- volve in the cross, the behavior of which it is sought to investi- gate. In his brief memoir, "Recherches experimentales sur I'hybridite dans la regne vegetale" (2b), Godron discusses the question of the fecundity of hybrids and the perpetuity or non-perpetuity of their characters. He states that, from crossing experiments of his own on species of the genera Verhascum^ Primula^ Nicotiana^ Digitalis^ Antirrhinum, Linaria, and Aegilops, "when two species, incontestably distinct, are fecundated, the one by the other, they 128 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL give products constantly sterile." (p. 228.) On the other hand, he further comments (p. 254) : "Crosses between two races or two varieties give, on the contrary, as Kolreuter has established, and as all those have recognized who^ have followed in his footsteps, products as fertile as legitimate species." Godron's point of view as to the value attaching to hybrid studies, is shown by his remark : "This fecundity then, equal to that of the parents, characterizes crosses (metis) and offers us a criterion to distinguish what is a race or a variety from that which is a species." (p. 255.) As to the fertility of hybrids and the perpetuity of their char- acters, he cites especially the case of Aegilops tnticoides polli- nated with pollen of wheat, and giving as a result Aegilops spel- taeformis, which, he says "at first fertile to a mediocre degree, like all hybrids of the second generation, produces, in the follow- ing years, as many seeds as any Aegilops or Triticum known, (p. 272.) The fact that the fecundity of the hybrids does not always bear a relation to the facility with which the cross is effected in the first place, is illustrated by Godron from Verbas- cum crosses, especially Verbascum austriaco-nigrum X phoem- ceum. (p. 283.) This sterility he recognizes as being due to one or several possible operating causes : The complete absence of pollen, defective pollen — deformed, etc. — or physiological steril- ity, as in the case of Antirrhinum majus, A Barrelieri^ which, al- though having an abundance of pollen, apparently completely normal, yet remained entirely infertile. Godron again comments on the very great vegetative develop- ment in hybrids of Verbascum : "The numerous branches, and the immense quantity of flowers which arise on these branches, would they not exhaust the vegetable juices at the expense of the organs of reproduction ^" (p. 287.) With regard to the question (p. 289) whether hybrids, self- fertilized, sometimes retain their characters unchanged for sev- eral generations, and thus become the type of constant races, or whether, on the contrary, they always return to the forms of one of their parents after several generations, Godron gives his case of Linaria hybrids, stating that : "these hybrid forms may become very fertile, and a certain number of individuals return, after the second generation, to the one and the other PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 129 of their two primitive types, when they grow in company with their parents ; and that this return movement manifests itself still more in the succeeding generations." (p. 289.) He notes that the same fact was observed by Lecoq in fertile hybrids of Mirabilis, by Naudin in fertile hybrids of Nicotiana^ and by himself in hybrids of Petunia vioLacea X nyctaginae' flora. "These facts," he says, "seem to militate in favor of this opinion, that hybrids are not able, contrary to the opinion of Linnaeus, to form new permanent types, or, in a word, new species." (p. 290.) He then cites at full length the exception already noted, of A egilops speltaeformis : ". . . which seems to constitute a permanent hybrid race, and appears to comport itself like a veritable species." (p. 290.) However, after a careful review of the results of his own ex- periments with Aegilops and those of Fabre, he decided that Aegilops speltaeformis does not behave like a true species, even though it is fertile, that its propagation and permanence remain dependent upon the care of man, and that, abandoned to itself, it is destined to perish. Hence, Godron concludes (p. 296.) : "Hybridity remains thus no less one of the most precious means of recognizing what is a species, and of distinguishing it from that which IS not." Nothing could show more clearly than Godron's small memoir of 1862 the point of view of his time regarding the hybrid ques- tion. Hybrids in many cases, well experimented upon, were seen to "return" gradually to the parental types. In what manner or to what degree, statistically speaking, such "reversion" occurred, was not made the subject of inquiry. Infertility of hybrids of "true species," or fertility of crosses of "varieties," was a deter- mined fact, accepted as relatively certain, and valued as a sort of criterion or means of ascertaining what organisms were "spe- cies," and what were "varieties." Naudin. With regard to the paper of Naudin (4c), the general conclu- sions of importance for his time, at which he arrived, are as follows, in the language of the Committee of Award of the Academy, which is quoted verbatim to show the point of view in the science then prevailing : 130 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "The first and the most important of all is that the singular beings which result from the cross-fertilization of two different types, far from being condemned to absolute sterility, are frequently endowed with the faculty of producing seeds capable of germination." (i, p. 129.) An essential feature in Naudin's paper, of high importance from our present standpoint, is the independent behavior of characters in a cross, referred to by the Academy committee as follows : "Not content with responding by numerous experiments to the ques- tions propounded by the Academy, the author . . . has sought to throw light upon several points, some obscure, others not yet studied, in the history of hybrids. He has confirmed that which Sageret already knew, that in a hybrid the characters of the two parents are often shown, not blended but approximated, in such fashion that the fruit of a Datura hybrid, born of two species, the one with a smooth, and the other with a spiny capsule, presents smooth surfaces in the midst of a surface generally spiny. This 'disjunction,' as it is called, is explained according to him by the presence in the hybrid of two specific essences, which tend to be separated more or less rapidly the one from the other. He even sees in this disjunction the true cause of the return of fertile hybrids to the specific types from which they came." {ib., p. 131.) It is further of great interest to note that the seeds gathered from the smooth side of the capsule reproduced only the smooth- capsule form, Datura laevis, while those taken from the spiny side gave rise only to the spiny form, Datura stramonium. In Ver- lot's paper, yet to be discussed, further instances of this type of segregation will be found. Naudin stated more clearly and definitely than others had hitherto done the fact of the general uniformity of the hybrid offspring of the first generation, and the diversity of form, with partial reversion to, or, as we would now put it, the reappearance of, the parental types, in the second hybrid or F2 generation. His language is as follows : "Finally, one may say that the hybrids of the same cross resemble one another in the first generation as much, or almost as much, as the indi- viduals which come from a single legitimate species." (4c, p. 188; Comp- tes Rendus, 4d, p. 839.) In contradiction to the results derived by Sageret from his par- ticular set of experiments, Naudin asserts the generally inter- mediate nature of the first generation hybrid condition : "All the hybridologists are in accord in recognizing that the hybrids (and it is always a question of the hybrids of the first generation) are mixed forms, intermediate between those of the two parent species. This is, in fact, what takes place in the immense majority of cases; but it PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 131 does not follow therefrom that these intermediate forms are always at an equal distance from those of the two species." (4c, p. 189.) He goes on to remark upon the vagueness with which this rela- tive approximation is determined, resting as it does largely upon a basis of opinion. He also calls attention to the fact, that some- times hybrids resemble one of the two parents in certain parts, and the other in other parts. Regarding segregation in the second hybrid generation, he says : "Very often, to the so perfect uniformity of the first generation, there succeeds an extreme medley of forms, some approaching the specific type of the father, the others that of the mother. . . . (4c, p. 190.) "it is, as a matter of fact, in the second generation that this dissolution of the hybrid forms commences in the great majority of cases. . . . (4c, p. 190.) "Among several of these hybrids of the second generation, there is a complete return to one or the other of the two parental species, or to both, and diverse degrees of approach to these species." (4c, p. 191.) Naudin now comes to what he regards as the philosophical ex- planation of these facts. "All these facts are naturally explained by the disjunction of the two specific essences, in the pollen and in the ovules of the hybrid. A hybrid plant is an individual in vjhich are found united two different essences, having their respective modes of development and final direction, which mutually counter one another, and which are incessantly in a struggle to disengage themselves from one another!' (4c, p. 191.) The above is Naudin's statement of the "law of disjunction." It is essentially a statement of the principle operating in what is known as Mendel's Law, but must be regarded rather as a philo- sophical inference, or divination of the truth, than as a scientific conclusion derived from the data of specific experiment. "The hybrid," says Naudin, "in this hypothesis, would be a living mosaic, in which the eye would not discern the discordant elements as long as they remained intermingled ; but if, in consequence of their affinities, the elements of the same species, mutually approximating one another, agglomerate in rather considerable masses, there may result therefrom parts discernible to the eye, sometimes entire organs, .etc." (4c, p. 192.) Naudin concludes that the pollen and the ovules, and the pollen especially, "are the parts of the plant where the specific disjunc- tion takes place with the most energy." f4c, p. 193.) He goes on to suppose (and here, perhaps, he comes close to a statement of Mendel's view), viz.: 132 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "That, in the hybrids of the first generation, the disjunction takes place at the same time in the anther and in the contents of the ovary; that some of the grains of pollen belong totally to the species of the father, and others to the species of the mother; that in others again the disjunction has not occurred or has just commenced : let us grant again that the ovules are, in the same degree, segregated toward the side of the father and toward the side of the mother. . . . If the tube from a grain of pollen approximated to the species of the male parent encounters an ovule segregated in the same direction, there will be produced a plant entirely reverted to the paternal species. The same combination being accomplished between a grain of pollen and an ovule, both separated in the direction of the female parent of the hybrid, the product will return in the same way to the species of the latter; if, on the contrary, the combination is effected between an ovule, and a grain of pollen, segregated in a direction contrary the one to the other, there will result a true cross-fertilization, like that which has given birth to the hybrid itself, and there will result therefrom a form intermediate between the two specific types." (4c, p. 193.) In 1864, Naudin communicated a second report to the Academy, in which he confirmed his previous results as to uniformity in the first generation crosses, the identity of reciprocal crosses, and the "disorderly variation," as he calls it, of the hybrids of the second and succeeding generations. In neither of the two papers is there any numerical classification of the hybrid types. Naudin's memoir is often referred to as amounting virtually to a statement of Mendel's law of the disjunction of hybrids. In Naudin's case, however, the statement was of a speculative na- ture, and consisted in the propounding of a scientific hypothesis ; in Mendel's case, his "law" was a scientific conclusion derived as the result of experiment. Reviewing this list of statements in the light of present knowl- edge, we can see that they constitute a more or less correct, non- scientific formulation of the truth. For example, the more or less rapid return of hybrids, that is to say of heteroz3^gotes, to the parental forms, is a now suffi- ciently well-established fact of segregation according to Men- delian ratios, which, if there be a single pair of allelomorphs in question, takes place on a 1:2:1 basis in each successive self- fertilized generation. The more or less rapid return to its parents of the hybrid fertilized by its parent, means, of course, the split- ting of 50 per cent dominants, or recessives, as the case may be, which are like the parental types in the case in question. Naudin propounded, in 1863, a well-reasoned theory of prob- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 133 able truth; Mendel, however, in 18^, formulated a statement of ascertained fact. In 1865, Naudin, who had won so much credit for his memoir on hybridization in 1863, published a paper on what he termed "disordered variation" in hybrid plants, occurring as the result of crosses he had made between a variety of cultivated lettuce and a wild species [Lactuca virosa). Of the cross he says: "The hybrid of the first generation was very fertile, and from the seeds sprang a multitude of young plants, very varied in aspect, which intermingled in all degrees the characters of the two species." Of these Fo plants, twenty were preserved, concerning which he remarks that they presented as a whole "all the phenomena of the most disordered variation." No two individuals of the twenty in the second generation were alike, and yet, so far as the characters were concerned, nothing new was seen to appear that had not already existed in the one or the other parent. "One essential point to bring forward here," Naudin adds, "is that, in this overlapping of the characters of the two different species, one does not see anything new appear, anything which does not appertain to the one or to the other. Variation, as disorderly as it may be, moves between limits which it does not transgress. The two specific natures are engaged in a struggle in the hybrid, to which each one brings its contingent ; but from this conflict there do not really issue new forms ; that which is produced is never but an amalgamation of forms al- ready existing in the parent types. The hybrid is but a composition of borrowed pieces, a sort of living mosaic, of which each piece, discernible or not, is ascribable to one or the other of the producing species." Naudin concludes that not the surrounding medium, but the nature of the ancestry, is the cause of all the variations seen in plants. He calls attention to the fact that seeds of the same sow- ing, although exposed to the sam.e environment, do not vary in the same manner. "We see the variation without any rule, by the sowing of their seeds, of plants subjected since time immemorial to our cultivation, such for example as the vine and the greater number of our fruit trees ; it all brings us to think that they owe it to crosses, probably very ancient and possibly anterior to all domestication, between neighboring species." Naudin then answers the question, "Whence comes heredity and what is it," as follows : "it is always the passage from one equilibrium to the other, and al- ways along the line of least resistance." 134 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL The term "disordered variation" (variation desordonnee) is probably employed by Naudin for the first time in his paper of November 21, 1864, "De I'hybridite consideree comme cause de variabilite dans les vegetaux." (4d, p. 157.) The use of the term arose from experiments in crossing, reciprocally, Datura laevis and ferox. In 1863, sixty individuals were grown of the cross laevis X ferox, and seventy of ferox X laevis. Of these plants, all of which came to full development, he says, ". . . they have been so perfectly like one another that the two lots would have been easily taken for a single one." (p. 155.) This result he considers a new confirmation of the conclusion already announced in his memoir presented to the Academy in 1863, (4c) : ". . . that there is no sensible difference between the reciprocal hy- brids of two species, and that in the first generation the hybrids of the same derivation resemble one another as much as do the individuals of the same pure species, issuing from the same sowing." (4d, p. 155.) "In this first generation," he adds, "the entire collection of the hybrid individuals of the same origin, however numerous they may be, is as homogeneous and as uniform as a group of individuals would be of an invariable species, or of a pure and clearly characterized race." {ib.^ P- 155.) According to Naudin's statement, although both the parents had white flowers and green stems, the hybrids of the first gen- eration were all characterized by violet flowers and brown stems, and with spiny fruits. This development Naudin ascribes to an extension, over the whole plant of the hybrid, of a character which was found to appear in a rudimentary way in the stems of the seedlings of D. ferox, which, at the time of germination, are stated to be of a deep violet-purple, extending from the root to the cotyledons, where it suddenly stops, giving way to a clear green tint. In the hybrids of the first generation : ". . . it takes on an enormous increase, reaching all parts of the plant, and manifesting its action especially upon the flower." (p. 156.) In 1864 the second generation of plants of the two reciprocals was grown. Nineteen plants were raised of D. ferox X l^e'vis, and twenty-six of D. laevis X ferox. "To the great uniformity [i.e., of the first generation! there succeeded the most astonishing diversity of forms, a diversity which is such that, of the forty-five plants which compose the two lots, one would not find two which exactly resembled each other." (p. 157.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 135 The plants differed from one another in height, habit, form of the foliage, coloration of the stems and flowers, degree of fer- tility, size of the fruits and their degree of spinescence. The various vegetative characters are given in a descriptive man- ner and in some detail, but without classification. "To sum up," he says, "the forty-five plants of the two lots, consti- tute, so to speak, as many individual varieties as if, the bond which attached them to the specific types being broken, their vegetation had wandered in all directions. This it is that I call 'disordered variation' [variation desordonnee], in opposition to another very different manner of varying of which I shall speak farther on." (p. 157.) The idea seems not to have suggested itself to Naudin that there could necessarily be any ascertainable law underlying the confusion which the variations in question represented, or that any quantitative study of the characters of the plants of the second generation was therefore necessary. In an article, "Sur les plantes hybrides," published in the Revue Horticole for 1861, Naudin had already arrived from his experiments at certain conclusions regarding the hybrid condi- tion. The hybrid, he says (4b, p. 397), may have characters of two orders : The first, to which in general the most attention is given, is the mixture in diverse proportions of the characters peculiar to each of the parental forms, and which constitutes the hybrid a form intermediate between the two. This mixture of characters may be an equal distribution of the characters of the two parents, but more often it is very unequal, in which case the hybrid more or less sensibly approaches one of the two species. In general, this fusion of characters is seen in all the parts of the hybrid, but there are cases, more rare, as Naudin states : ". . . where the characters dissociate [se dissocient] to occupy sepa- rately and exclusively certain organs, so that the hybrid appears to be formed of heterogeneous parts, borrowed from the two species, and as it were, soldered to one another." (p. 397.) The hybrid orange, in which the fruit is lemon in certain por- tions and orange in others, is cited as "one of the best known examples of this form of disjunctive hybridity." Often the two orders of characters exist simultaneously in the same hybrid plant, but is it not rare, says Naudin, for one of them to appear alone. "it is a rare case where a hybrid resembles exclusively one of the two 136 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL parents ; that is to say reproduces identically one of the two specific forms." (p. 397.) In the same article Naudin reports upon an experiment in crossing Petunia nyctaginaeflora, with white corolla and yellow- ish pollen, by Petunia violacea, with purple corolla and violet- blue pollen. Naudin says : "Our experiments have taught us that the hybrids in the first genera- tion are very uniform in most of the species." (p. 398.) Of thirty-six plants derived from the above cross, thirty-five were very much alike, with lilac flowers and bluish pollen. The second generation is recorded in some detail. Ten plants resem- bled P. vwlacea in form and color, so that it was impossible to distinguish them from the type. Nineteen plants had flowers white or very feebly rose-colored, with violet throat and with grey-blue pollen. Sixteen plants had flowers more or less lilac. One only had white flowers. In the third generation 1 16 plants were grown (in 1856), concerning which it is not necessary to go into detail. The conclusion which Naudin drew from his Petunia experi- ments, repeated, as he says, several times, was to the effect that at least in the genus in question : ". . . the hybrids have no constancy, and that one is not able to count upon the sowing of their seeds to reproduce and preserve the varieties which crossing has caused to arise." (p. 398.) 19. Verio fs Memoir on the Breeding of Plants. In 1865, B. Verlot of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris published a brief memoir, which in 1862 had received a prize from the Imperial and Central Horticultural Society, the thesis of which was as follows : "To demonstrate the circumstances which determine the production and fixation of varieties in ornamental plants." The memoir is of interest as thoroughly and typically em- bodying the general point of view of the day concerning hybrid- ization and the origin of new varieties, while affording at the same time much matter of interest from the standpoint of prac- tical horticulture. Verlot presented the view that, while the causes of variation are unknown, they arise under definable circumstances, chief PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 137 among which he enumerates prolonged cultivation, removal from one set of climatic and soil conditions to another, and hybridiza- tion. The thought of the time did not clearly distinguish a differ- ence between the nature of the changes brought about by the external environment, and those arising from sexual fertiliza- tion. Both were generally assumed to be equally heritable. Culti- vation long continued was considered to have been especially potent in bringing about variation. In Verlot's words : "it is especially with plants cultivated for a great number of years, with those the introduction of which is so ancient that it is lost in the night of time, that one finds profound and multiplied modifications." (6, p. 4.) He further voices the then prevailing view regarding the rela- tion between culture and variations : "if we compare," he says, "a species in its spontaneous condition with the same species cultivated, transported, that is to say, most often into conditions of climate, soil, etc., completely different from those in which it lived before, we shall be struck by seeing that, in our gardens, this latter will show derivations of type more numerous than in the wild state. We shall infer from this fact the consequence that the faculty of varying, which is proper to the plant, augments with culture, if we observe then that the plants cultivated in our gardens which have varied the most, as for example the dahlias, the roses, the camellias, the rhodo- dendrons, the potato, etc., are not borrowed for the most part from our flora, nor from one of the neighboring floras, but on the contrary come from distant countries, where they grow under conditions often abso- lutely different from those in which we cultivate them, we shall con- clude that, the more a species is depatriated, the more easily it will vary." (6, p. 30.) And again, "the more plants are cultivated, the greater their variations are and, by the same token, the easier they are to fix. We will possibly be contradicted, but we do not hesitate to consider, once more, long practised culture as one of the most favorable antece- dents to the rapid fixation of variations," (6, p. 38.) It now seems probable that the increased variation manifested by wild plants, when brought into cultivation, is due to the re- moval of the restrictive influences of competition, rather than to any actual increase in the range of heritable variability itself. Verlot cites, as examples of the changes supposedly wrought by culture, the changes brought about in the roots of such plants as beet and parsnip ; in the production of dwarf plants ; in vari- ous modifications of general habit, such as fastigiate, pyramidal and weeping variations in trees ; in the appearance of variations with laciniate or otherwise modified leaves ; in the varieties with 138 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL leaves colored white, yellow, red, or brown; in the arrangement of the leaves, as in the sudden appearance, on an ordinary alter- nate-leaved plant of Rosa alba, of a shoot with opposite leaves, propagated as Rosa cannabifolia. From the evidence he concludes that cultivation sets up within the plant a condition of instability, which gives rise not only to seed variation, but to variation within the plant itself — what we would call bud-variation or "somatic segregation," as in the case just cited; the case of a chrysanthe- mum reported, which bore at the same time yellow- and rose- colored flowers; and of a citrus fruit half-and-half orange and lemon. Another case cited by Verlot is that of a variegated Camellia imperialis, which for twelve years had constantly given brilliant white flowers set off with rose-colored striations and variegations, and upon which a small branch appeared one year, bearing three flowers in a group, of a uniform color, the same tint as that of the striations and variegations of the other flowers. "It is evident in these cases," says Verlot, "that the colorations dis- join, and that this variation returns by disjunction to its colored parent for certain plants of hybrid origin." (6, p. 67.) "As we see," he says, "by the sole fact that a plant is cultivated it is forced to vary. The instability of a cultivated plant is even evident in certain cases, in such a way that it does not only manifest itself in the direct descendants of the plant, but also in the plant itself. Thus, while the generality of the branches of a plant bear leaves, flowers and fruits of definite forms or colors, a branch is sometimes produced, in which the leaves, flowers, and fruits present completely different characters. "We recognize that culture has been, and is still, the essential cause of the variation of plants, and that thereby man has, so to speak, com- pelled them to re-clothe themselves with new forms appropriate to his needs or to his caprices." (6, p. 5.) The above statement excellently presents the older point of view regarding variation. Such cases as the rose, chrysanthemum and orange, and the famous chimaera, Cytisus adami (C. pur- pureus X Laburnum), Verlot accounts for under the guise of Naudin's conception of "disjunction." "It Is by disjunction that, in these last cases, the specific forms thus appear in hybrid plants, and it is with woody plants, it will be noticed, that this fact achieves all the phases of existence of a hybrid plant, an existence of which this disjunction would be the last term." (6, p. 14.) He then refers to Naudin's case of disjunction in Datura, which is elsewhere discussed. Verlot's expression of view on the matter of methods of selec- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 139 tion is so thoroughly typical of the thought of his time, viz., that variation is in consequence of the "breaking up" of the "type," and that selection ipso facto, intensifies the variation in the direction selected for, that it is a matter of interest to present here the view expressed. "if a variation is produced in a direction other than that toward which one tends, it ought not to be abandoned for that; one will have more chance to obtain new variations in sowing a deviation from the type, even in a diametrically opposite direction, than in sowing anew the type itself. In the deviation there is already a tendency toward perturbation, and toward the beginning of the destruction of atavism." (6, p. 31-) Another interesting example of the older point of view regard- ing plant improvement is Vilmorin's opinion, quoted by Verlot, which is here reproduced to show how thoroughly the primary idea concerning the "breaking up of the type" in order to bring about "variation" entered into the thought and operations of pre-Mendelian breeders. "To obtain from a plant not yet modified varieties of a kind deter- mined in advance, I will first set myself to making it vary in some direction or other, choosing for the reproducing factor, not that one of the accidental varieties which would most nearly approach the form which I have proposed to myself to obtain, but simply that which would most differ from the type. In the second generation, the same care would make me choose a deviation, the greatest possible at first, the one most different, in a word, from that which I would have chosen in the first place. Following this direction for several generations, there necessarily ought to result, in the products obtained, an extreme ten- dency to vary; there then results again, and that is the principal point according to me, that the force of atavism, asserting itself counter to very divergent influences, will have lost a great part of its power, or, if one ventures to make use of this comparison, it will exert it always in a broken line." (6, p. 28.) Man's relation to the fixation of characters in new races of plants is stated by Verlot in the usual manner prevalent in the days before Mendelian analysis : "In brief, gardeners have remarked, ^with reason, that a plant newly introduced is very susceptible to vary. This fact, it is conceived, has nothing surprising about it. It confirms that which we have previously said, that a variety, whatever it might be, had need, in order to become fixed, of being cultivated for a greater or less length of time, until one had finally come to maintain with it the tendency not to depart from being that which he had made it." (6, p. 70.) In other words, the idea then prevalent and more or less im- perfectly expressed was that, in some unknown manner, man, by 140 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL continued selection, succeeds in impressing upon a "variety" the stamp of a certain type and, through repeated and continuous selection in the same direction, finally "fixes" it, so that the variety becomes, as it were, stabilized. It probably usually means that, by continuous selection of some certain type, those individuals are usually isolated, which are more or less homozygous for the character-units thus repre- sented, and which become "fixed" because no heterozygous fac- tors are left to split apart. We have here, in other words, an unscientific expression, through practical experience, of the fact which the breeder of today would define as the selection of a heterozygote having dominant characters differing from those of the species. Being of hybrid nature, such a plant would break up, and hence yield to selection, whereas the plants resembling the type, being more apt to be homozygous, would be less liable to vary in their prog- eny. He emphasizes the view just set forth still more emphati- cally in the following words : "if two variations are produced, of which the one differs little from the type, but is placed upon the line which leads in the desired direction, and the other is placed in an opposite direction, but departing consider- ably from the type, we shall not neglect nevertheless to follow this latter, because with it the breaking-up of atavism is more advanced." (6, p. 31-) The necessity of fixing upon some single individual plant, as the basis of selection, is referred to by Verlot in the following terms : "We ought then to recognize that it is necessary to take account for the choice of the seed-bearers, not only of the external characters, but even of the idiosyncrasy of each one of them. Now, since this does not manifest itself except by its effects, we shall, if a variation seems to present some difficulties in becoming fixed, have to examine separately the products of each of the seed parents, and make our choice bear upon those which present, in the least pronounced degree, atavism or the tendency to return to the primitive type." (6, p. 32.) Verlot's experience with and observations upon hybrid plants, as coming from an experienced horticulturist, are valuable, espe- cially to the practical plant breeder. Regarding the now well-understood fact of the gradual disap- pearance of the hybrid form through segregation, he says : "Their fertility is of short duration, through the more or less rapid return of their products to the types which have given them birth." (6, p. 25.) PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 141 Regarding the general aspects of plant hybrids, he adds : "All their characters, of whatever nature they may be, with the ex- ception of a more considerable development of the organs of vegetation, are in general intermediate between those of the parents, but always limited by them." (6, p. 25.) • Regarding the matter of the bounds or limits of the hybrid characters, he remarks elsewhere : "Let us call attention to a circumstance always constant in the hybrids, which we have to consider, that is the absence in the products of colors other than those, or a combination of those, of the parents. We shall insist upon this characteristic, because we shall have occasion to recur to it; it will serve us to establish that, up to now, the facts prove that, by hybrid fecundations, one will obtain, in whatever part of the plant they present themselves, only the variations of color limited to those of the parents." (6, p. 18.) Since Verlot's view regarding the nature of a "hybrid" was the conventional one, that it consists of a cross between what are commonly called distinct "species," he was led to notice the very common fact of comparative sterility in these cases. Noting the well-known characteristic of augmented vegetative growth in hybrids, he is led to ascribe the frequent seed-sterility to this latter — a conclusion easily if naively arrived at, from the well- known inverse relation between undue vegetative luxuriance and seed reproduction. As an instance of intermediacy, Verlot alludes to the matter of height : "In crossing an almost dwarf species with the pollen of a taller species, . . . the seeds of this cross will undoubtedly produce individ- uals taller than was their mother." (6, p. 44.) Regarding intermediateness in size in flowers, he says : "In crossing a species 'parviflora by its variety 'grandiflora we shall be able ... to obtain individuals with flowers larger than those of their mother; by crossing, one is able then to create a race or a variety in which the size of the flowers will be augmented." (6, p. 47.) With regard to the same matter in respect to earliness and lateness, he says : "Supposing one crosses a very early plant with its very late variety, or vice versa, one will only be able to obtain varieties intermediate between the parents in earliness or lateness." (6, p. 50.) Regarding fragrance, he mentions the case of a cross between Rhododendron ciliatuin (odorless), and R. edgeworthii (very fragrant), the hybrid being less intensely fragrant than the pol- len parent. (6, p. 31.) 142 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL In the matter of color intermediateness, he makes the state- ment : "Once obtained, white coloration is able to serve, either by crossing or by hybridization, in the production of new variations ordinarily in- termediate between them and the color from which it has proceeded." {ib., p. 59.) In other words, presumably, dilution through the presence of but a single dose of the color factor. The most interesting portion of Verlot's memoir is his discus- sion of the practical results achieved with ornamental plants in the field of hybridization. Regarding dwarfing, he cites McNab (p. 42) to the effect that the best dwarf varieties of Rhododendron are obtained by the use of pollen taken from the small stamens : ". . . the products of which," he says, "I am able to certify, are very different from those obtained by the use of the pollen of the large stamens." Regarding breeding for winter-hardiness, he mentions the case of the cross of Amaryllis brasiliensis^ a delicate species impossible to winter out of doors, by Amaryllis vittata, a much hardier plant, whereby hybrids were produced which, with light cover- ing, would withstand the climate of Paris. Likewise, Rhododen- dron arhoreum^ which cannot resist more than two to three degrees of cold, gave, when crossed by R. catawhiense — a much hardier form, though with inferior inflorescence — hybrids which inherited the hardiness of the female parent. Verlot did not recognize the phenomenon of dominance as such in the first generation of the hybrids, but he mentions the case of a white Gloxinia^ crossed by pollen from a blue-flowered variety, in which, out of one thousand seedlings, ". . . all bore nothing but perfectly blue flowers, not a single one of them being white nor a single one variegated." (6, p. 65.) Regarding the inheritance of variegations, it may be of interest to note that the following species are mentioned, in which the variegated form breeds true from the seeds. Alyssum maritimum Celtis australis Bar bare a vulgaris Cheiranthus cheiri With these are to be included the variegated ferns Pteris ar- gyraea and P. aspericaulis var. tricolor. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 143 He remarks upon an interesting fact, that the variegations do not appear upon the first leaves of a variegated variety. Regarding the heredity of double flowers, he reports no cross- ings, but simply remarks upon cases of double-flowered peach and apple, which came true from the seed. (6, p. 83.) Verlot summarizes his views upon hybrids in the following words, which are worth reproducing because they fairly well rep- resent the general knowledge of the time as follows : (1) "Hybrid fecundation is not able to produce anything but variations which will be able, it is true, to multiply themselves mechanically, but which will not be fixable, and which consequently cannot be brought to constitute races or varieties, the fertility being limited to a few generations, or disappearing, after a certain time, by the dis- junction of the types. (2) "One of the characters of the hybrids is also a great development of the vegetative organs, coincident with less abundant flowering. They are in general intermediate between the species types, but often approach more the father. (3) "The hybrid, fertilized by a parent, returns also promptly to the parent. (4) "The hybrid, self-fertilized, returns more or less rapidly to the parents. (5) "Crossing, that is to say, reciprocal fertilization of varieties of races of the same species, will serve for obtaining new variations, inter- mediate between the parents, very fertile, and which can be fixed more or less rapidly and constitute new varieties or races." (6.) 20. The Work of the Vilmonns. The eminent services of the Vilmorin family for over two hun- dred and thirty years to French agriculture, and particularly through the improvement of the sugar-beet and of wheat, cannot be taken up here. It would not, however, do justice to the mental activities of a long succession of the members of this family, and of the distinguished house of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie. of Paris, if one omitted to at least mention the fact that, through no less than seven generations of father and son of the family of Vilmorin, there were published by them, in journals and annals of agriculture and horticulture, in proceedings of agricultural and horticultural societies, and in journals of botany and related sub- jects, more than three hundred and sixty articles dealing with plants, from the various standpoints of agriculture, of horticul- ture and floriculture, and of botany. Some fourteen of these were contributed to the Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France. It 144 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL remains in the present instance to discuss the contributions of Louis de Vilmorin (1816-1860), and of his son Henry (1843- 1899), to investigations in heredity and in hybridization. The first experimental effort, since the work of Sageret, to find a definite numerical relation in the transmission of characters from a cross was the work of Louis de Vilmorin, carried on with Lupinus hirsutus from 1856-1860, and reported upon by his son in 1879. (7b.) This species affords the advantage of being gen- erally self-fertilized, and has ordinarily blue, but also frequently rose-colored flowers, there being no other color or intermediate shade. The plants used came from seeds of these two varieties, from commercial lots, kept pure by rogueing out all plants not of the desired color. It was Vilmorin's conception that, in a self- fertilized plant such as lupine, there was introduced a great ad- vantage in the study of heredity, since each individual was the descendant of a single plant of the preceding generation, and not of a number of ancestors, doubling itself at each stage, as in the case of plants where two individuals are involved in seed re- production. "It may then be admitted," says Vilmorin, "that the seed sowed the first year of the experiments, in 1856, reckoned a series of at least fifteen ascendants, which have given flowers constantly of the same color, blue for some, rose for the others." (7b, p. 6.) No crosses were made, but records were kept for four years of the different kinds of plants derived from each sowing. Out of the progeny produced each year, instead of planting all or a consid- erable number, but one representative of each color was planted, as a rule, so that large numbers are not available. The fact that both the blue and the rose-colored plants for the most part broke up into blue and rose for each year indicates that each strain was in the hybrid or heterozygous condition. In forty cases during the five years, the rose-flowered plants broke up into blue and rose ; in three apparently, and in the other cases possibly, there appeared to be a 3 : 1 ratio of rose to blue. In thirty-six cases in the same period, the blue-flowered plants in turn broke up into blue and rose ; in six of these cases, the ratio was close to 3: 1. It is evident that Vilmorin's experiments need repetition, since a clear breaking-up of both blue and rose-flowered plants into blue and rose again would not be expected. A few cases of rose and a few cases of blue bred true. To V^ilmorin, it PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 145 was simply a question of filtering out the progeny until they be- come true, either rose or blue-flowered. He remarks upon the fact that "the color blue persists more obstinately, becomes fixed more quickly, and once fixed maintains itself better, than the rose color." (7b, p. 8.) Plate XXVIII. Louis Leveque de Vilmorin, 1816-1860. 146 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL This experiment is one of the few attempts at obtaining infor- mation as to the numerical relations between the progeny of plants in the hybrid condition, although in the present instance, the plants not having been knowingly crossed, they were not regarded by Vilmorin as being in the hybrid condition with respect to flower color. The fact of their breaking-up, however, shows that Plate XXIX. Henry Leveque de Vilmorin, 1843-1899. such was nevertheless the case. This being true, it is probable that the large number of irregular ratios which were obtained was due to crossing by insects. Vilmorin was naturally unable to deduce any precise conclusion from such an array of data. It must be PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 147 kept clearly in mind that, from his point of view, a plant was a constant struggle between two opposing forces, the force exerted by its immediate parentage and that exerted by its ancestry. "The characters of an individual plant are the result of the action of two distinct, and in a certain measure, opposed forces. The first repre- sents the tendency to individual variation or idiosyncrasy. It causes the individual to present characters different from those of its ancestors, while remaining enclosed within the limits assigned to the species. This force, although probably complex in its nature as in its effects, may, for facility of reasoning, be considered as 'simple.' The other force is that which calls upon the individual to reproduce the character of its ascendants." (7b, p. 41 ; 8, pp. 33-4.) "This latter, simple, and insofar as the ancestors are concerned, of the individuals which one considers have presented invariable charac- ters, becomes on the contrary evidently complex, if there have already been some variations. The tendency to assemble a collection of beings dissimilar among themselves cannot be the effect of a single force, but the resultant of several more or less divergent forces. One may call 'atavism' the tendency which, in this case, calls the plant to resemble the totality of ascendants, and 'heredity' that which leads it to reproduce the characters of the individual from which it immediately descends." (7b, p. 4.) In another place (yd), Henry de Vilmorin quotes his father's viewpoint again as follows : "if we consider a seed at the mornent when, put into the ground, it gives birth to a new individual, we may regard it as solicited, so far as the characters are concerned which the plant must exhibit to which it is to give birth, by two distinct and opposing forces. These two forces, which act oppositely, and from the equilibrium of which results the fixity of species, may be considered as follows : "The first, or centripetal force, is the result of the law of the re- semblance of children to fathers, or atavism. Its operation has for its results the maintaining, within the limits of variation assigned to the species, of the departures produced by the opposite force. "The other is the centrifugal force, resultant of the law of differences in individuals or idiosyncrasy, and causes each one of the individuals composing a species, whether one is able to consider it as the progeny of a single individual or of a pair, to present differences which consti- tute its own physiognomy, and produce that infinite variety in unity which characterizes the works of the Creator." (p. 489.) Vilmorin thought that the action, of these diverse tendencies would be measured by the proportion of plants with blue flowers, and of plants with rose-colored flowers, respectively, which pro- ceed from the seeds of an individual of one of these two colors, and especially since, in his view, there were no intermediates. The inferences, rather than conclusions, which Vilmorin believes he is able to derive from the experiment, are based upon the fact that 148 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL the majority of the descendants, in his experiments, resembled their immediate parent, and that the power of that which he calls "direct heredity" is altogether preponderant. From the fact that now and again a plant would "take back" to a more remote an- cestor, he concluded that "atavism" was also a constant and ten- acious force to be reckoned with. "It is this force," he observes, "which causes to reappear the characters of the great mass of the ancestors among distant descendants, across numerous generations presenting different characters. The action of this force may appear limited, if one considers only its influence upon a single generation, but, if one reflects that it acts constantly and always in the same direction, it is explained that it suffices to maintain the fixity of plant species." (7b, p. 10.) Elsewhere, Vilmorin further remarks regarding the forces in- volved in inheritance : "We come first, for the greater simplicity, to consider atavism as con- stituting a single force, but, if one reflects, one will see that it presents rather a bundle of forces acting almost in the same direction, and com- posed of the individual call or attraction of all the ancestors. Now, to facilitate the intelligence of action of this force, it will be necessary for us to consider first, and in an abstract manner, the force of the re- semblance to the mass of the ancestors, which may be considered as due to the attraction of the type of the species, and to which we shall reserve the name of atavism; then separately, and in a more special man- ner the attraction of the force of resemblance to the father direct, or heredity, which, less powerful but nearer, will tend to perpetuate in the child the characters proper to the immediate parent." Another conclusion which Vilmorin draws, is as to ". . . the very rapid enfeebling of the influence of heredity beyond the first generation, in other terms, the little tendency which plants show to resemble any ancestor exhibiting characters other than those of the mass of ancestors, if this ancestor is not the immediate author of the plants. We have seen frequent examples of blue plants issued from two or three generations of rose plants, and giving birth nevertheless to a progeny entirel}' or almost blue." As to the conclusion which one may draw from these experi- ments, he says : "It will not be a mathematical evaluation of the comparative power of the different forces which act upon the transmission of the characters in the plants. On the other hand, in a word, one knows that the phe- nomena in which the vital forces intervene do not permit themselves to be reduced to figures, and on the other hand, were it otherwise, that the number of individuals observed in each generation would not be enough to give precise numbers, limited as that was by that of the seeds of the hybrid plants, the seeds being in Lupinus hirsutus very large and few." PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 149 The only general conclusion which Mlmorin was able to derive from the lupine experiment, which he was able to put into the form of what. might be called "rules," are the following: 1. "a very marked tendency of plants to reproduce the characters of the immediate ascendants ; it is the effect of direct heredity. 2. "A tendency less strong, but much more persistent, to resemble the mass of the distant ancestors. It is that which has been spoken of under the name of atavism. 3. "A rapid enfeebling of the tendency to reproduce the characters of an ascendant which is not the immediate author of the plant, if these characters are not those of the mass of the ancestors." (yd, p. 490.) Vilmorin summarizes by saying : "The experiment already gives indications which, approximated to the results of the experiments made and to be made, will permit, one day without a doubt, to be embraced in a complete and methodical presentation the totality of the laws which regulate the heredity trans- mission of characters in plants." (7b, p. 11.) The difficulty with Vilmorin's experiment, as with so many others before that of Mendel, was that it did not undertake to deal with the progeny of plants purposely crossed with the object of determining the numbers and proportions of individuals of the different kinds., that appeared in the second and "variable" gen- eration. So far as Vilmorin's experiment itself was concerned, had the plants been covered, to prevent all pos^^ibility of crossing, and had the numbers of the progeny planted been large, instead of consisting of single representatives of the blue and rose- colored strains, respectively, results of value to students of breed- ing might have been definitely revealed. In another memoir (8) Louis de Vilmorin raises the question whether ". , , the qualities or the characters produced in an individual by ex- ternal and accidental circumstances, such as are peculiar to it and have not affected its ancestrv, are in some proportion transmissible sexually," (p. 2.) Instinct, he says, leads him to a negative conclusion, although, as he admitted, determinative data upon the subject were lacking. In undertaking the study of heredity, Vilmorin remarks upon the necessity of disengaging as much as possible the study of heredity from the circumstances which might characterize its action. The latter he finds complicated by the question of the range of the variations in the plant induced by external conditions. 150 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "For it is only after having determined the normal amplitude of these variations that one is able to judge if more considerable ones present themselves, which one is able to attribute with certainty to the action of the causes of perturbation which one studies." (8, p. 3.) Vilmorin's scientific point of view is plainly shown in the fol- lowing statement : "The number of forces which are in play is so considerable, the man- ner in which they are able to combine is so varied, that it explains to me in part how difficult it is to obtain completely concordant results in an experiment where all the influences, save that which one studies, ought to remain invariable." (8, p. 4.) In the following, Louis de ^'ilmorin shows an appreciation, in advance of its scientific demonstration by Johannsen, of the prin- ciple of using pure-bred strains or "pure lines" in breeding; of breeding from the individual plant, and not by means of mass selection. Referring to the breeding of the sugar beet, he says : "All that I have been able to observe up to the present, on the question of the transmission by heredity of characters in plants, makes me think that it is necessary to individualize the observations as much as possible. So I have adopted the custom, when I had to fashion a race, no matter how little rebellious, of gathering and sowing the seed separately of each one of the individuals which I have marked as my choice, instead of making, as ordinarily, a choice composed of as many individuals as I needed to collect the quantity of grain of which I had need, and I have always remarked that among these individuals there were some which always gave a better return than others, and which I finally adopted as the sole type for amelioration." (8, p. 18.) In 1890, Henry de Vilmorin reported (jd) an interesting obser- vation with peas, similar in character to that of Goss, which awakens surprise from its not having aroused further investiga- tion. Speaking of the progeny, he says : "All the seeds of the same plant are not rigorously alike among them- selves. They differ, especially when the plant which has borne them is of a mixed race, and has undergone, or is in the process of under- going, modifications through the action of the environment in which it ives. Vilmorin then, in the following words, anticipated the present point of view regarding the distribution of characters. "The different characters which enter into the composition impress themselves differently in the different seeds, and are reproduced in di- verse combinations in the plants issuing from those seeds." He proceeds to give as an illustration, precisely the case of the distribution of characters which formed part of Mendel's experi- ment. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 151 "It is known that among peas there exist races with white seeds, and others which, even at maturity, have green seeds. Now this year [1889], examining peas obtained by crossing a race with green seeds with a race with white seeds, I have frequently found in the same pod seeds of different colors. This character of color, easily appreciable to the eye, permits the conclusion that all the seeds of the same plant are not necessarily alike among themselves, nor endowed exactly with the same faculty of reproduction." (p. 488.) No analysis, however, was made of the nature of this phe- nomenon, by growing separately the green and the white seeds thus produced, Vilmorin ventures no further view upon the fundamental na- ture of hybridization than to say that cross-fecundation has this inexplicable but well-determined result, so far as the characters of the plant are concerned, "of grouping them in the different seeds resulting from the cross in very variable combinations and proportions." It is to be seen that there exists here a recognition of the germ of the idea of the segregation of characters, without, however, furnishing the data for knowing their possible proportions. Henry de Vilmorin reported to the Societe Botanique de France (Sessions of February 27 and December 10, 1880; 7c, pp. 73-4, 356-61), upon the hybridization of wheat. "Several times in the course of recent years," he states, "I have had occasion to make crosses between different varieties of wheat, to the end of obtain- ing new forms, presenting, from the agricultural point of view, certain qualities which I sought to develop." (p. 73.) These crosses originally made between varieties of Triticum sativum, suggested the attempting of crosses also between different forms of wheat, originally regarded as belonging to different species. The charac- ters of the hybrids in the sativum crosses were reported as being in general intermediate, now approaching one, now the other par- ent, or offering characters found in neither. Crossing a pubescent wheat, "Ble a duvet," reciprocally with a reddish, beardless, smooth spelt {T. spelta), the products of the cross were intermediate where spelt was the $ and "Ble a duvet" the $ parent. From the reciprocal cross, eight similar and intermediate plants were ob- tained. The grain was adherent to the glumes, and the rachis fragile as in spelt, but less so. The important thing, in Vilmorin's opinion, was the ability of two supposed "species" of wheat to Plate XXX. Henri Lecoq. mont-Ferrand. Professor of the Natural Sciences at the University of Cler- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 153 cross, giving a uniform and strictly intermediate progeny. In the more extensive report (7c, 356-61), reciprocal crosses made in 1878 were reported between T. sativum and T. turgidum, durum, polonicum and spelta. All the possible combinations between sati- vum and the other four were attempted with success, except in the crosses upon T. polonicum $ . The reciprocals with this form as $ succeeded. Crosses (reciprocally) with T. monococcum failed. In the pubescent, white-chaffed, wheat-spelt crosses, the spelt char- acters were reported as being the most strongly characterized in the descendants. All combinations of color and pubescence of glumes (except pubescence in the speltoid forms), is reported. Second-generation results are given of crosses between "Chiddam d'automne," a soft, white-chaffed, beardless wheat, by "Ismael," a pubescent, hard wheat, and between "Ble Seigle," a red, pubescent, beardless variety of T. sativum, and "Ble Buisson," a poulard wheat. From the first-named cross, Vilmorin reports the second generation in 1880 as giving the most diverse forms, no two alike, nor a single one reproducing the characters of either of the original parents. Not only were noted soft and hard wheats, but wheats resembling poulard (T. turgidum), and more or less the spelts (T. spelta), which, he remarks "is surprising in the progeny of a soft and of a hard wheat." Of the cross with "de Beauce," the second generation gave "the most curious mixture of wheats, dwarf and tall as to straw, bearded and beardless, with heads extraordi- narily slender or extrem.ely compact." (p. 359.) There also appeared a form resembling T. durum, but beardless. The cross involving "Ble Seigle" and "Ble Buisson" is reported as giving rise, in the sec- ond generation, to "wheats of all sorts, bearded or beardless," but among which "one notices a very marked tendency to approach forms derived from T. spelta'' Among these there was "even a branched spelt issued from two wheats with simple heads." These cases appear to Vilmorin to be cases of the "disorderly variation" reported by Naudin. He remarks, "Similarly to Naudin, it is in the second generation that I observe this variation." (p. 359-) Vilmorin further comments upon the appearance, among the progeny of the two wheats, of characters not those of either of the parents, but belonging to other wheat forms. The general conclusion is, "If 154 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL these forms can be fixed with their present characters, it will be very difficult to doubt that the most of the races of wheat, consid- ered ordinarily as so many species, are in reality but variations of one and the same plant." (p. 35'9-) 21. Lecoqs Memoir on Hybridization. In 1827 appeared the first edition of a work by Henri Lecoq, entitled "Recherches sur la Reproduction des Vegetaux." In 1845 appeared his work on hybridization, published in 1846 in German translation. A second edition of the book was published as late as 1862. Lecoq, who was Professor of the Natural Sciences and Di- rector of the Botanical Garden at Clermont-Ferrand, sought to present the subject in such manner as would be of interest and of tangible concrete value to the practical gardeners of his time. To this end he says : "in order to be as clear as possible, I have endeavored not to frighten away every practical gardener and friend of gardening through useless parade of science and erudition." (3b, p. 5.) His point of view is well stated thus : "However limited a flower garden, however small the corner of the earth may be which a garden amateur can command, he is nevertheless in a position to institute a number of useful investigations and note- worthy experiments, to prepare for himself innumerable joyous de- lights, when he succeeds, through artificial fertilization, in enriching his little garden, his friends, his native region, with a new creation, which owes its existence to his care and his intelligence. What pleasure when he can extend these annuall}^ almost entirely at his will, with new shades and colors never seen, obtain larger flowers, or bring about un- limited doubling." {ib., p. 6.) Lecoq enlarges upon the results that can thus be obtained in fruit and vegetable gardening, and in agriculture : "Although we possess already about five hundred sorts of grains, yet we can still always obtain better ones, at least new modifications which are better adapted to this or that soil or climate, or to all the conditions of this or that agriculture." {ib., p. 7.) The general method to be pursued is laid down simply as follows : according to Lecoq's and the then prevailing point of view, the first thing that one must strive after, in order to bring plants to vary, is "the shattering of their stability, and the break- ing up of their habit." For this purpose, it was considered desir- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 155 able to sow their seeds under different conditions of climate, tem- perature, soil, moisture, etc. When, after several such sowings, a case occurs where individual seedlings show more or less remark- able changes, varying more or less, showing that stability or habit has been unsettled, the seeds of the varying plants are to be gathered, since from these, new varieties are to be expected. The seeds of such new forms are sown over again and so on con- tinually. Such changes Lecoq considers "purely morphological phenomena, that is to say, changes of the natural form without hybridization." Once arrived at this point, hybridization of the thus newly- obtained varieties was to continue, and still other new ones thereby again obtained. Such was the simple formula of this genial friend of plants and gardening, for the breeding and improvement of plants. After a brief botanical discussion of natural fertilization, Lecoq devotes the remainder of his book to a discussion of artificial fertilization, first in its general aspects and applications, and then in ^detail, as applicable to the various more important families of the seed plants, of which he brings into discussion seventy-five, including two hundred and ninety species. Speaking of the hybrid offspring of the crossing of plants of different genera or different species, Lecoq says : "In general, the product of such a fertilization . shows at the same time the characters and peculiarities of the father and of the mother; but I have noticed that in a very great number of crosses achieved by myself with all conceivable foresight, the hybrids or products have almost always taken more from the mother plant than from the father." (3b, p. 41.) The reason for this might possibly be attributed to frequent cases of accidental self-fertilization. Again Lecoq says : "The most difficult thing was and always is the shattering of the stability of the first type, the breaking of its habit; just as soon as an impulse thereto is present, then variation begins to know the limits of which no human eye and no human understanding suffices. With the mighty lever of hybridization in the hand, the power of the gardener is an almost unlimited one." {ib., p. 45.) Lecoq comes now to the discussion of special objects in the breeding of plants. Speaking of breeding for double flowers, he makes a remark that has genetic value. 156 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "One has almost the certair^ty of getting many double flowers, as soon as one of the crossed species has become double, and in no wise was the doubleness of both parents necessary, as many gardeners believe." (ib., p. 45.) . "Two plants with half-double flowers often furnish hybrids with very double or completely double flowers ; but extremely seldom does the case occur where two species with single flowers produce in the imme- diately following progeny hybrids with double flowers." (ib., p. 46.) With respect to color, Lecoq remarks : "Most ordinarily, colors mingle, mix and fuse through hybridization just as though one had put them together in a palette, and there arises therefrom a middle or half tint ; but with many genera they do not fuse, but remain separate, and appear as variegations on the corolla, as for example in the morning-glory, tulip, etc. ; in stripes as in the aster ; in flecks or clouds as in many varieties of Dahlia; in peripheral mark- ings or borderings, as in some auriculas, primulas, etc." (ib., p. 47.) Coming to matters of detail u^ith respect to the crossing of plants in different families, there are a number of interesting re- marks which deserve to be noted. In discussing the family of the Cruciferae, Lecoq refers to the case of a cross by Sageret between a cabbage and a black radish, the latter serving as the seed parent. This hybrid is reported to have had two types of shoots, one super- posed over the other, and both entirely distinguishable through their form, one being like that of the cabbage, and the other re- sembling the radish. This appears to be an interesting case of factor-mutation in somatic cells. Lecoq mentions the further case of a sectorial chimaera in Dianthus harhatus, which sometimes, as he says, shows "variations" in which flowers of different color occur not only on the same plant, but in the same inflorescence, white and red flowers being immediately juxtaposed. His view is as follows : "plants which show these characters are hybrids, and confirm an ob- servation made long since by Sageret, which my experience also verifies, that one frequently gets hybrids which do not stand in the middle be- tween father and mother, but appear to have taken on some organ or other completely from the one and from the other, respectively, and without any modification at all. I should at least scarcely know how to explain the appearance of different colored flowers upon the same plant in any other manner." (p. 117.) In discussing the Leguminosae, Lecoq speaks of the crossing of alfalfa, and alludes to the undoubted probability of successfully crossing Medicago sativa, or ordinary alfalfa, with Medicago lupulina or Yellow Trefoil, but remarks: PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 157 "There appears to be no necessity for the creation of new plants, so long as one has not already recognized, in those already present, essen- tial defects or disadvantages, or on the other hand marked advantages." (lb., p. 145.) It is interesting here to remember that it is undoubtedly to a natural cross of these two species that the Grimm variety of al- falfa is due, which has enabled alfalfa growing to be carried into the northern border states of the western United States, and the western provinces of Canada. Speaking of the crossing of agricultural plants in general, Lecoq remarks : "It certainly remains highly regrettable that thus far there has been so little concern about hybridization of agricultural plants, and that it has been simply left to chance to get varieties, while it would have been so easy [referring here to beets] to institute with discretion crossing experiments which certainly would be a new cause of agricultural riches." (ib., p. 305.) Lecoq lived before the days of the breeding of the cereals. Al- luding to the breeding of wheat, he says : "It remains one of the extraordinary human facts, that such a simple operation, exacting neither time nor money, which can have such large results, has thus far not been attempted on a plant upon which so many families of all European lands are fed." (ib., p. 401-) In conclusion it may be mentioned that Lecoq crossed a variety of corn called Zea rostrata (corn with pointed or beaked kernels) with ordinary yellow and red corn, and says : "I completely destroyed the beak. Every single variety of this fine plant brings out some kind of a change through hybridization, either in the form of the cobs, or through the variegation of the kernels, or through entire metamorphosis of the color." {ib., p. 398.) BIBLIOGRAPHY Duchartre^ P. E. Rapport sur la question de I'hybridite dans les vegetaux, mise au concours par I'Academie des Sciences. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, 4me Serie, 19:125-34. 1863. Godro?i, D. A. (a) De I'hybridite dans les vegetaux. Nancy, 1844. 158 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL (b) Recherches experimentales sur I'hybridite dans le regne vegetale. Memoires de I'Academie de Stanislas, 1862. Nancy, 1863. pp. 287-98. (c) Des hybrides vegetaux, consideres au point de vue de leur fecondite, et de la perpetuite ou non-perpetuite de leurs caracteres. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 4me Serie, Botanique, 19: 135-79. 1863. 3. Lecoq, Henri. (a) Recherches sur la reproduction des vegetaux, 1827. (b) De la fecondation naturelle et artificielle des vegetaux, et de I'hybridation, consideree dans ses rapports avec I'horticulture, I'agriculture et la sylviculture, ou etudes sur les croisements des plantes des principaux genres cultives dans les jardins d'ornementes, fruitiers, et maraichers, sur les vegetaux economiques et de grande culture, les arbres forestiers, etc., contenant les moyens pratiques d'operer I'hybridation, et de creer facilement des varietes nouvelles. 10th ed. Paris, 1845. German trans, by Ferd. von Biedenfeld. Weimar, 1846. (c) De la fecondation naturelle et artificielle des vegetaux, et de I'hybridation, consideree dans ses rapports avec I'horticulture et la sylviculture, contenant les moyens pratiques d'operer I'hybridation ; et de creer facilement des varietes nouvelles. 2nd ed. Paris, 1862. 4. Naudin, Charles. (a) Reflexions sur I'hybridation dans les vegetaux. Revue Horticole, 4me Serie, 4:3^-4. 1855. (b) Sur les plantes hybrides. Revue Horticole, 4me Serie, 1861. pp. 396-9. (c) Nouvelles recherches sur I'hybridite dans les vegetaux. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, 4me Serie, 19: 180-203, 1863. (d) De I'hybridite consideree comme cause de variabilite dans les vegetaux. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Bo- tanique, 5me Serie, 3: 153-63. 1865. Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences, 59 ."837-45. November 21, 1864. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 159 5. Sageret, Augustin. Considerations sur la production des hybrides, des variantes et des varietes en general, et sur celles des Cucurbitacees en particulier. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Prem. Serie, 8:294-314. 1826. 6. Verlot, B. Sur la production et la fixation des varietes dans les plantes d'ornement. Paris, 1865. 7. Viimorin, Henry L. de. (a) On the formation of races, varieties, and hybrids in vegetables. Magazine of Horticulture, 19:314-16. 1863. (Review of an article in the Revue Horticole.) (b) Note sur une experience relative a I'etude de I'heredite dans les vegetaux. Memoires Societe Nationale d'Agricul- ture de France, 1879. (c) Essais de croisement entre bles differents. Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France, 27:356-61 (December 1880). Also 30:58 (1883) ; 35:49 (1888). (d) L'heredite chez les vegetaux. Conferences de I'exposition universelle de 1889. Paris, 1890. Session of September 23, 1889. Also, Heredity in Vegetables, Farmers' Magazine, Lon- don, 1889. (e) The selection of races of cultivated plants. Garden, 44 : 234-6. September 9, 1893. (f) Pedigree or grade races in horticulture. In papers read at the World's Horticultural Congress, pp. 10-19. 1894. 8. Vilmorin^ Louis Leveque de. Notices sur I'amelioration des plantes par le semis, et con- siderations sur l'heredite dans les vegetaux. Paris, 1859. New ed., 1886. 9. Vilmorin^ Andre L. de. Note sur I'amelioration de la carotte sauvage. Transactions de la Societe Horticulturale de Londres, 1840. (Note reprinted at the head of "Notices sur I'amelioration des plantes par le semis," by Louis de Vilmorin, Paris, 1859.) CHAPTER V 1 THE GERMAN HYBRIDIZERS 22. Wzegmatin's Experiments. IN 1819, and for a second time in 1822, the Physical Section of the Royal Prussian Academy of the Sciences, had, at Link's proposal, offered a prize for an answer to the question: "Does hybrid fertilization occur in the plant kingdom'?" (Gibt es eine Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreiche'?) and this, despite the fact that as early as 1761, Kolreuter had flattered himself with the hope that now, ". . . even the most stubborn doubter of the truth of the sexuality of plants would be completely convinced, if contrary to all conjecture," he says, "there should be such an one, who, after a rigid examination, still maintained the contrar>% it would astonish me as greatly as though I heard someone on a clear mid-day maintain that it was night." Fifty-six years after this utterance however, apparently un- convinced, the Prussian Academy still sought light in the dark- ness that Kolreuter had congratulated himself to have dispelled. On the third of July, 1826, the Academy's prize was conferred upon Dr. A. F. Wiegmann, physician, of Braunschweig. Since the investigation did not, however, in the Academy's opinion, furnish a complete solution to the question, only half, instead of the whole of the prize was granted. The award was made in the following language : "The author has described the results of his investigations with appro- priate brevity. These results are in part completely convincing, and in part not;" the reason being given, that certain of Wiegmann's hybrid speci- mens submitted scarcely showed evidence of being of a hybrid character. Since, on the other hand, Wiegmann's results com- pletely confirmed and extended those of Kolreuter, and especially by reason of his determination of the fact that self-fertilized hybrids may bear fertile seeds, it was decided to grant the award. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 161 Wiegmann, through forty years of observation, including the fact of having actually produced two geranium crosses as early as his sixteenth year, was already predisposed toward the affirma- tive of the question submitted. His investigations, begun in 1822, were finally published in 1828 (7). In order to overcome all possible criticisms from the opponents of the idea of sexuality in plants, which he considered might be directed against what he designates as "an unnatural handling of plants in pots," he con- ducted his operations in the open ground, in connection with which, he alludes to the several hindrances he was obliged to undergo, "weak sight, a trembling hand, and painful bending and kneeling." (7, p. 2.) Wiegmann refers to the main failures encountered, including the attempted repetition of a number of Kolreuter's experiments, as being probably due in part to having attempted crosses be- tween different genera. "since many stigmas, according to my numerous experiments, take the pollen of too distant genera either not at all, or with extreme difficulty." (p. 2.) "plants which together are to produce hybrids," he says, "must have some relationship with one another, as Kolreuter has already remarked. The nearer the parent plants are related to one another, the more easily will hybrid fertilization succeed ; most easily in the case of different sub-species or varieties ; then different species of the same genus ; less easily in the case of plants of different genera." {ib., p. 26.) Wiegmann, however, was entirely free from any rigid dog- matic attitude on the species question. His views in this regard are completely modern. Continuing the above, he says : "Yet at the same time, one needs indeed pay less attention to differ- ences based on artificial generic characters. Genera like Pisum and Vicia, Ervum and Vicia, Lychnis and Cucubalus, are in their nature so related that hybrids can arise from them, as Kolreuter and I have demonstrated." "So much the more I dispute his opinion," he says of Kolreuter, "re- specting the difference between true 'species' and 'variety' falsely de- rived from the fertility or infertility of the hybrid plants." {ib., p. 25.) Wiegmann, in fact, regards chance crossing in nature, between species or sorts of plants, as having given rise to new agricultural races. "It appears from my experiments," he says (p. 26), "that many species, or constant subspecies, e.g., Pisum arvense, Vicia leucosperma, Vicia faba (red-seeded), as well as the most of the varieties of cabbage and the cereals, whose origin is unknown, possibly are hybrid plants, which i62 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL have been produced upon our fields and in our gardens through the proximity of a few related plants, and have remained constant." (p. 26.) Wiegmann sums up the matter of the bearing of degrees of relationship upon crossing as follows (p. 27) : "Mainly it rests on the point that the different plants do not vary from one another greatly in their natural constitution, and that their secretions are not too heterogeneous, since otherwise the pollinating substance would not be absorbed by the stigma. "In general," he says, "foreign pollen takes hold of the stigma with much greater difficulty than does its own, and in order to obtain com- plete fertilization, one must often deposit it several times, even when the foreign pollen is from a plant of the same species." (p. 3.) Wiegmann's experiments covered a list of thirty-six crosses, using the following species and cultivated varieties : Avena, 3 species and varieties Ervum (lentil), 1 species Allium (onion, etc.), 2 species Dianthus (pink), 3 species Brassica (cabbage, etc.) 4 races Phaseolus (bean), 2 varieties Nicotiana (tobacco, etc.), 2 species Verhascum, (mullein), 9 species Pisum (pea), 1 species Vicia (vetch), 3 species The general conclusions Wiegmann draws from his experi- ments are most interesting. The most important are those which relate to the possible vigor of new species. "My experiments sufficiently prove," he says, "that the fertilization of different subspecies, inter se, is a source of manifold degenerations of species in the plant kingdom, and that insects, especially bees and bumble- bees, as well as little beetles and flies, play a much more important role in the fertilization of plants than one has lately been inclined to allow them, but of which I have the indubitable proofs." (p. 3.) "Even though the structure of the corolla in the case of leguminous plants," he says again (p. 26), "scarcely appears to admit of the access of insects and foreign pollen, yet the plants obtained from the seeds of experimental plants show such a striking alteration in their specific characters, especially in the form of the seed and its envelopes, that an influence of foreign pollen on the ovules will scarcely be able to be denied. I myself have numberless times convinced myself of the fact that bumblebees, bees and small insects from the order of flies and beetles, can fertilize the flowers of the Leguminosae in the manner stated by Sprengel. It is therefore necessary in agriculture to give heed to this matter, if one wishes to keep plants that are to be cultivated in their quality and integrity." With respect to observations of a more special nature, Wieg- mann's memoir contains much interest. Regarding the breaking-up of the progeny of hybrids, he says, speaking of K61 renter's obser- vations : "I have found his observations well founded, that the plants produced from seed from one capsule of hybrid plants, often differ from one PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 163 another in respect to fertility, and especially in the structure of certain parts, now approximating more to the father, now to the mother." (p. 25.) Wiegmann's independence of traditional authority is witnessed in his contradiction of the view of "the great Linnaeus," that hybrids resemble the mother in the fertilization apparatus, and the father in foliage and habit. Instead, he says : "The change through the foreign fertilizing pollen shows itself in very different parts in different plants ; in the anther-filaments, in the in- florescence, in the form, color, and odor of the corolla, in the height of the stem and its divisions, in the form and outside covering of the leaf." (p. 23.) Referring to the then general assumption that hybrids (of the Fi generation) occupy a mid-position with respect to their char- acters between the two parents, he says : "In many cases this does not occur, but either the color of the father or that of the mother shows itself alone dominant (herrschend) in the hybrid. The same also obtains among animal hybrids ; the two colors may, through mingling, give an intermediate one, but in just as many cases the one only prevails. Plant hybrids therefore unite in themselves in part the peculiarities of the father, in part those of the mother, whereby they approach now the maternal, now the paternal form." (p. 21.) Regarding the matter of dominance, Wiegmann further inci- dentally remarks upon the case of the crossing of two species of Dianthus, where "the form of the father has almost entirely suppressed that of the mother." (p. 22.) For present-day genetics, one of the most interesting points in Wiegmann's report is his discussion of the immediate effect of the pollen in the case of leguminous plants. According to his statement : "Even immediately after fertilization, an alteration arising in the form and color of the seed, and in the form and size of the pods, is especially unmistakable in the case of the leguminous plants, although otherwise all fruits and seeds of hybrid plants from other families have never shown themselves to me to be different from those of the mother plants." (P- 23.) And again : "The principle expressed by Gartner, that the influence of foreign pol- len changes nothing in the form and external character of the fruits and seeds of the mother plants, should, according to my investigations, un- dergo a modification in the case of Diadelphia {Leguminosae) , since, in the case of these, the foreign pollen exerts an immediate effect upon the color and other characters of the fruits and seeds." (p. 29.) In the case of Phaseolus, he says : 164 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "Previous experiments have taught me that Phaseoli of one species, but of two different kinds of flowers and seeds, when placed together, bear differently colored seeds, and, in the second generations, also differ- ently colored flowers." (p. 23.) Wiegmann carried on some field experiments with beans, vetches, oats, and cabbage, in which adjoining rows of plants were allowed to freely cross-pollinate through the agency of the wind and insects, from which he concluded : "It appears further, from the behavior of the Leguminosae and of cabbage, that agronomists and gardeners cannot be careful enough in the arrangement of their fields in order not to suffer from the great damage through hybrid fertilization occurring even the first year." (p. 36.) Speaking generally, he says further : "It is not entirely improbable that that which exhibited itself to me thus far, as being peculiar to the Leguminosae alone, may take place also among other plant-families, and the clearing up of this matter remains very desirable for botany, as well as for agriculture in particular." (P- 30.) Wiegmann's work, as a whole, impresses one as the work of a man without scientific prepossessions, willing to investigate for himself, and to dispute freely the authority of other investigators, such as Linnaeus, Kolreuter, and Gartner, and, withal, a man with a practical bias for and sympathy with agriculture. 23. The Work of Carl Friedrich von Gartner. In the valley of the Nagold, in the Black Forest region of Wiirtemberg, some forty miles southeast of Stuttgart, the capital, lies the village of Calw. Here Kolreuter, whose home was in Sulz, a little way to the south, also in the Neckar valley, lived for a time, and did some of his work in hybridization, in the garden of a local physician. By a curious coincidence, in the same village of Calw in which Kolreuter had previously worked, and but forty miles north of Sulz, where the latter had formerly obtained the first hybrid plant ever produced in a scientific experiment, lived and died Carl Friedrich von Gartner, who for twenty-five years conducted ex- tensive experimental work in hybridization. He was a physician, and son of the distinguished botanist, Joseph Gartner, Professor at Tubingen and St. Petersburg, and author of an authoritative work on the seeds and fruits of plants, in which were figured the morphology of more than a thousand species. The introduc- ,.*■'■ -V.V" Plate XXXI. C. F. von Gartner, 1772-1850. Plate XXXII. Village of Calw, in Wiirtemberg, home of C. F. von Gartner. Plate XXXIII. Marketplace in Calw, Wiirtemberg. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 167 tion to the volume for 1778 contains, in the words of Sachs, "valuable reflections on sexuality in plants." In 1830, two years after the appearance of Wiegmann's mem- oir, the Dutch Academy of Sciences at Haarlem, in turn, pro- pounded anew the riddle of hybridization in the following words : "what does experience teach regarding the production of new species and varieties, through the artificial fertilization of flowers of the one Plate XXIV. Present site in Calw of a portion of the former experimental garden of C. F. von Gartner. with the pollen of the other, and what economic and ornamental plants can be produced and multiplied in this way?" No reply was received (January 1, 1833), and the offer was accordingly renewed for another three years until January 1, 1836. In October, 1835, Gartner learned of the prize offer, and was able to present a brief resume of his work up to that time, which, indeed, prompted a further extension of time on the part of the Academy. Gartner finally presented the Academy with a memoir of two hundred pages, and with herbarium mounts of one hun- dred and fifty different sorts of hybrid plants produced by hand i68 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL pollination. On May 20, 1837, this memoir received the prize, and was later (April 20, 1839) published in revised and extended form, together with an extensive list of the experimental material, and with the obtained results arranged in tabulated form. An idea of the amount of labor expended by Gartner during the twenty-five years of his hybridization experiments may be gathered by the statement that he carried out nearly ten thousand separate experiments in crossing, among seven hundred species, belonging to eighty different genera of plants, and obtained in all some three hundred and hfty different hybrid plants, as the total result. Among the prominent genera worked with were Althaea, An- tirrhinum., Aquilegia, Avena, Datura, Delphinium, Dianthus, Digi- talis, Fuchsia, Gladiolus, Hypericum, Lobelia, Lychnis, Malva, Matthiola, Nicotiana, Oenothera, Papaver, Primula, Ribes, Ver- bascum, and Zea. Number of Number of attempted Number of Genus Spi ?cies u sed combina- hybrid plants in crosses tions obtained Nicotiana (Tobacco, etc.) 23 432 85 Dianthus (Pink) 20 349 87 Lychnis (Campion) 1 137 18 Verbascunm (Mullein) 14 118 97 Lobelia 4 97 20 Digitalis (Foxglove) 9 59 14 Datura (jimson Weed, etc.) 8 SS 16 Oenothera (Evening Primrose) •9 52 6 Aquilegia (Columbine) 9 33 23 107 1332 366 Gartner undertook to classify hybrids for convenience into three types: (1) intermediate, (2) commingled, and (3) definite. The first included those in which "a complete balance occurred of both fertilizing materials, in respect to either mass or activity." (2f, P- 277-) ^ Commingled types are those in which ". . . now this, now that part of the hybrid approaches more to the maternal or to the paternal form, whereby, however, the characters of the parents, in their transference to the new organism, never go over pure, but in which the parental characters always suffer a certain modi- fication." {ib., p. 282.) Under the third class of hybrids, Gartner places those PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 169 ". . . among which the resemblance of a hybrid to one of its parents, either to the father or the mother, is so marked and preponderating that the agreement with the one or with the other is unquestioned." (ib., p. 285.) Gartner recognized, as did the other hybridists of his day, that there was always a difference between the first and the succeeding generations, the former being uniform, the later ones variously splitting up. He made no distinction between the second and the other following generations, but simply says that the fundamental ground material of which the hybrid is made ". . . behaves differently in the second and in the further stages of breeding, where, on account of the different nature of the two factors of the hybrids in the succeeding fertilizations, an altered, shifting, vari- able direction in type-formation enters into the arising varieties." (ib., p. 572.) He further says, concerning variability in hybrids of the second and succeeding generations : "other hybrids, and in fact the most of them which are fertile, present from the seeds of the second and further generations, different forms, i.e., varieties varying from the normal types, which in part are unlike the original hybrid mother, or deviate from the same, now more, now less." (p. 422.) His most definite statement, however, regarding what we call "segregation" is as follows : "Among many fertile hybrids, this change in the second and succeed- ing generations affects not only the flowers but also the entire habit, even to the exclusion of the flowers, whereby the majority of the in- dividuals from a single cross ordinarily retain the form of the hybrid mother, a few others have become more like the original mother parent, and finally, here and there an individual more nearly reverted to the original father." (ib., p. 422.) Gartner did not fail to recognize the fact of unusual vigor in hybrids, although he does not distinguish as to the generation. "The marked increase in the size of the flowers is a phenomenon not seldom occurring among hybrids [p. 295] and one of the most marked and general characters of plant hybrids is the luxuriance of all their parts, since, among very many of them,^ an exuberance of growth and development of roots, branches, leaves and flowers manifests itself, which is not encountered among the parents, even under careful cultiva- tion." (ib., p. 526.) Gartner recognized at once the possibilities for agriculture in the fact of the increased vigor of hybrids, although, of course, he did not realize the fact that this increased vigor belonged only to a "hybrid" generation, as distinguished from Fo segregates. lyo PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "Among the characters of hybrids worthy of recommendation for agri- culture, their tendency toward luxuriance in the stalks and leaves, and their extraordinary capacity for tillering, is related above. With respect to the raising of forage, agriculture could, without doubt, make great use of this characteristic." (p. 634.) Gartner derived, from his long experience, a certain, philosophy concerning the nature of hybrids which is noteworthy. He recog- nized an inequality in the influence of the relative "potency," as he termed it, of one parent over another in a cross ; which potency was maintained whichever way the cross was made. As now inter- preted it probably means the relative dominance of one or more factors of the respective parents. Gartner, not having the knowl- edge which has come in consequence of Mendel's investigations, sought a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon of domi- nance and gave it the designation "sexual affinity" {W ahlverwand- schaft) in the crossing of species, the magnitude of which he con- sidered could be measured by the number of viable seeds produced in the cross. He seems to confuse the matter by appearing to indi- cate that there might possibly be a different number of seeds pro- duced by the reciprocals of reciprocal crosses, thus presumably indicating a possible "prepotency," so called, of one of the parents in the cross. In other cases he seems to mean simply the relative influence, so to speak, of such and such species when crossed with others. This appears to be the meaning in the following : "This manifestation of generic types, according to which one species operates in a predominant manner over several other species in hybrid breeding, is a further incontrovertible proof that the relationship of the forces, through which the union of two pure species takes place, must be unlike, and that thereby there can be no question of any balance of factors." (2f, p. 290.) It will be seen that Gartner's view of hybridization was that "species" was crossed with "species" as such, each species as a whole exerting its own relative power or "potency" in the cross — the hybrid being regarded as the resultant, so to speak, of the contest for supremacy of the two competing natures in the com- pound. This view is well enough expressed in the following pas- sages : "Thus, just as there are species in a natural genus, which possess a prepotent fertilizing power upon several other species of their genus, so there are also species which exert upon several others such a typical pre- dominating effect, not to an equal extent to be sure, but still of such a PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 171 nature that their operation, in all combinations is to be recognized by a character in common. "Both of these forces, are, however, of different kinds, and follow different laws." (p. 289.) Gartner did not realize, in spite of Sageret's experiments, that some individual characters of a parent might be found to domi- nate in a cross and others not. "The laws of hybrid types orient themselves," he says, "not toward the individual organs of plants — do not apply to a single part, e.g., stems, leaves, etc. — but are applicable rather to the inner natures of species. The organs which determine the types of hybrids must therefore be investigated and compared in their totality and in their natural interrelationship. For the most part, the peculiarity of a hybrid expresses itself in its entire aspect; only in this respect the flower is most fre- quently and plainly distinguished above other parts of the plant." (p. 251.) We do come, however, upon a form of utterance that is some- what singularly Mendelian in character: "in the formation of simple hybrids, as in sexual reproduction in gen- eral, two factors are active. This unlikeness of activity, flowing from the specific difference of species, expresses itself through the more pro- nounced or the weaker manifestation of the individual paternal characters in the different parts of the hybrid. Whether the total nature of the species and its formative impulse determines the direction and form of the type, or whether the individual parts of plants have a special influence upon the modifications, may not be determined without further investigation." (p. 257.) Gartner made some crosses with corn and with peas, to deter- mine the question of the immediate influence of the pollen upon the character of the seed. In corn he got no results, because of crossing white corn with red, in the case of which latter, the color, being due to the skin or pericarp, does not show itself until the following season. Because of the importance of the later genetic results with Pisum and Zea mays, it will be of interest to follow in some detail Gartner's work in the crossing of plants of these two species. The following comment is made upon Knight's experiment with peas : "Th. Andr. Knight, in the year 1787, instituted experiments with Pisum sativum fructo-albo (Common White Pea) and P. sativum fructo-cinereo (Grey Pea), which were first made public in the year 1799, concerning which he noted that the pods obtained from these artificial fertilizations were not markedly different from those of the ordinary seed capsules of this variety {Pisum album) ; from which he derived the conclusion that it was probably true, that the outer hull of the seed of Pisum, as 172 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL he had also found with the other plants, was entirely formed by the female orgaiis. Of the change in the color of the seeds no mention occurs here ; yet it is to be expected of Knight that this should not have escaped him, if it had actually taken place in the case of his seeds. In a later appearing report of this celebrated agricultural writer, the altera- tion in the color of the seeds of peas through artificial pollination is conceived, but in the second generation, however." (p. 80.) In view of a number of previousl}^ reported results with respect to the immediate influence of foreign pollen upon the seed and the fruit, Gartner undertook, in 1829, a series of experiments of his own to this end. For this investigation he chose the following- named varieties of garden peas : 1. Parisian Wax Pea, tall, with white flowers, designated as Pisum sativum luteum 2. Red-flowered Sugar Pea {Pisum sativum macros per mu7n) 3. White-flowered Creeping Pea with yellow seeds {Pisum sa- tivum nanum repens) 4. Early Green Brockel Pea {Pisum sativum viride). All of them, as he states, were constant and well-marked vari- eties. The results may be summarized as follows (3f, pp. 80-6) : I. P. sativum luteum X P- macro spermum. The seeds from the four flowers pollinated gave 16 round yellow seeds of the same size and form as the self-fertilized flowers. II. P. sativum luteum X ^- sativum viride. From the five flowers pollinated the pods contained as fol- lows ; 1. 4 round-oval seeds of the same size as the self-fertilized, of greenish-yellow color 2. 6 round seeds of dirty-yellow color 3. 1 seed, greenish-yellow 4. remaining unfertilized 5. 1 round seed, greenish-yellow. Gartner says (p. 82) : "All these seeds in the following year (1830) germinated well, and furnished five sound plants." Of the color and form of the seeds of these plants, however, he makes no report. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 173 III. P. sativum macrospermum (very tall, with purple flowers and greenish-yellow seeds) X P- sativum nanum repens (with white flowers and yellow seeds). From four flowers pollinated fruits were obtained, containing as follows : 1. 4 "somewhat more dirty-yellow seeds than those of the maternal parent, which are more greenish," an evident observation of dominance 2. 4 seeds similar to the above 3. 4 seeds which did not mature 4. 4 seeds similar to (1). IV. Pisum sativum nanum repens X Pisum sativum viride (with white flowers and green seeds). Four pods were produced. The result as to the seeds is reported as follows : "On complete ripening and desiccation of the pods and of the seeds, there was, however, no essential difference to be described between those arisen from natural (maternal) fertilization, and those arisen from hybridization ; only that the hybrid peas appeared to be somewhat more round and less uneven. The color was not different." (p. 83.) V. Pisum sativum 7ianum repens (with white flowers and yel- low seeds) X ■^- sativum viride. Six flowers were pollinated, producing altogether 22 seeds, which all appear to have been round with greenish-yellow color. VI. Pisum sativum viride (with blue or green seeds) X •^• sativum luteum. But one flow^er was pollinated, producing a single seed ". . . which was not decidedly yellow, still less blue or green, but dirty yellow, thus incontrovertibly changed in color, since the flowers left to self-fertilization furnished simply green or blue seeds." (p. 84.) VII. Pisum sativum viride X P- sativum macrospermum. Five flowers pollinated, from which-- four pods were obtained, containing in all 12 seeds, all round and yellow, with the excep- tion of one that did not come to maturity. VIII. Pisum sativum viride X P- sativum nanum repens. One flower pollinated; five seeds produced, all pale yellow. Gartner did not follow out the distribution of form and color in the seeds to the second generation. The statement which most 174 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL nearly approaches to a conclusion in this regard, is found on p. 326, as follows : "The above-mentioned change in color of the seeds of Pisum sativum through hybrid fertilization comes out in the second generation more definitely and more decidedly than in the first immediate hybrid product through the immediate influence of the foreign pollen, whereby a quite similar relation as in Mays and other seeds is produced." (p. 326.) Again (3f, p. 496), speaking of the "running out" of certain Leguminosae^ he says : "Already above [p. 82], several varieties of Pisum have been under discussion and exact experiments have been reported, whereby it has been demonstrated that, through fertilization, such an alteration in the seeds is effected, that in the plants deviations from the previous condi- tion come to light." Gartner's most general statement, however, regarding the sec- ond hybrid generation appears to be as follows (z^., p. 422) : "In many fertile hybrids, this alteration in the second and further generations affects not only the flowers, but also the entire habit, even to the exclusion of the flowers, whereby the majority of the individuals of a single breeding ordinarily retain the form of the hybrid mother, a few others here become more like the stem-father." Concerning the influence of foreign pollen upon the immediate form and color of the hybrid seed, Gartner reports further upon his experiments with Zea mays. Having maintained constant a Zea mays nana strain with yellow seeds and a Zea mays major strain with red-striped seeds, in cultivation in his garden for sev- eral years, in 1825, he crossed thirteen ears of the yellow with pollen of the red-striped strain, from which but a single ear with five seeds developed. "The five perfect seeds were neither in size or color in the least dif- ferent from those of the mother, so that immediately after the com- pleted ripening of the seeds, it appeared doubtful whether really a hybrid fertilization had taken place with them ; the germination in the following year, however, . . . placed the hybrid fertilization of the plants obtained in a clear light ; so that it proceeds uncontradictably therefrom, that with Zea mays the pollen of an otherwise colored species or variety only changes the nature of the embryo, not, however, the external quality and color of the seeds." {ib., p. 88.) Gartner, of course, was unable to distinguish between the be- havior of endosperm and pericarp color in maize crosses. His investigations on color-inheritance in the seeds of Indian corn, were induced by the facts of color-inheritance in the seeds of peas. He states : PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 175 "There was under discussion [p. 80] the matter of the immediate work- ing of the foreign pollen upon the quality and color of the seeds, and the fact was cited that the genus Pisum shows the peculiarity, that the seeds of the different varieties of Pisum sativum assume immediately an- other color through the foreign pollen : therefore arose in our case the presumption, that this would likewise also obtain with the different varieties of Zea mays. Earlier experiments with Zea mays, by R. J. Camerarius, Logan, Pontedera, and Henschel, which Schelver has assem- bled, give no information on this point." {ib., p. 322.) In 1824, as stated above, Gartner pollinated Zea mays nana with small yellow seeds, with pollen of Zea mays major^ with grey, red, and striped seeds. Of the various pollinations (on thir- teen plants), only one of the crossed ears grew; viz., the one pol- linated from a plant of the red-striped variety, which produced five seeds. In 1825, these five seeds were grown, and produced four ears. Two of these had only yellow seeds, somewhat larger than those of the female plant. Of the two others, however, one ear had 64, out of 288 seeds, "more or less reddish and gray" ; the other, out of 143 seeds, had 39 which, like the preceding, were more or less colored. "it is, however, to be remarked that the yellow color of these inter- mingled yellow seeds was not pure yellow like that of the maternal parent, but dirty yellow; thus, therefore, as well in size as in color somewhat altered," {ib., p. 323.) The experiment was carried over to the second generation. For further determination as to the alteration of the colors of the seeds obtained in the preceding experiment, the seeds from each ear were separated, especially according to the colors, into four parts, and sowed apart, in order to obtain the result, in the second generation, of each color separately. The seeds were divided into : (a) pure yellow (c) clear grey (b) dirty yellow (d) dark reddish-grey. (p. 323.) The pure yellow seeds, (a) above, produced 5'9 ears, 32 of which bore yellow seeds ; several others are reported to have had only a few colored seeds ; in the case of several, there were "a number of seeds dissimilarly colored, distributed at random, but by far the greater part of the seeds were yellow." The dirty yellow seeds, (b), gave 5 ears, on which markedly more colored seeds were found than on the ears from (a), the 176 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL great majority being yellow. There was no ear with yellow seeds exclusively. The clear grey seeds, (c), produced two ears, on which the pro- portions of seeds were reported as follows : pure yellow, ^4 ; yel- low and speckled grey, about ^g ; reddish-grey, 1/12 ; and dark reddish-grey and brownish-red, ^. This is the only instance in Gartner's maize experiments in which the numbers in the second generation are reported. The seeds of (d) did not germinate. While the experiment has not particular genetic value, inasmuch as the parents were not selfed lines, and close-pollination is not reported as having been effected in the case of the F^, the work is interesting historically. Gartner considered the fact noteworthy, as he states (p. 325) that red-and-yellow striped seeds were derived from the grey seeds, and notes that the stripes concentrated about the point of insertion of the style, his actual object of investigation being to determine whether, in the case of Zea mays^ as in Pisum^ an im- mediate effect was produced by foreign pollen. He considered the fact to have been demonstrated in the negative by his experiment. "since it is, however, determined, that the color of the seeds of Zea mays do not immediately undergo an alteration through foreign polli- nation, but that the capacity for the color change indicated is first pro- duced in the germ through hybrid fertilization, and the different colors of the seeds appear for the most part separate and without order on the ears of the second generation ; it is therefore to be doubted that the previously mentioned stripes produced in the second generation through the fertilization process with their own pollen proceed from the point of insertion of the pistil (stigma), but that they proceed rather from the base of the seed, run through the outer layer of the testa, and unite at the apex of the seed at the base of the pistil ; so that the reason there- for is to be sought, not in the fertilization material, but in the rudiment of the unfertilized egg." {ib., p. 326.) The remark is of interest as a sort of genetic conclusion, in which morphological reasoning was involved, the fact of the con- veyance of the stripes in the seed toward the base of the stigma being assumed by Gartner to be prima facie evidence of the fact that the "influence" of the pollen ("Befruchtungssubstanz") af- fected the morphology of the seed from the point of entrance of the pollen into the ovary at the base of the stigma. Since this rea- soning antedated any knowledge of the manner in which fertiliza- tion actually took place. It is not particularly surprising. It is. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 177 however, unfortunate in Gartner's case that he was unable to differentiate between endosperm color and pericarp color, which latter he was actually dealing with. Consequently, his experiments, while proving to his mind the fact that the immediate effect of cross-fertilization did not appear in the case of the seeds of maize, is, of course, wide of the mark, since the appearance of stripes in the presumed "second" generation was the normal F^ appear- ance of pericarp color. Gartner's work is noteworthy, not only for the remarkable number of species with which he experimented, but for the scru- pulous care which he exercised in his operations, if we may judge from his own statements, as for example, the following : "For complete assurance of the purity and reliability of the products of hybrid breeding, and for testing the conclusions derived therefrom, we have repeated most of the experiments, especially the doubtful cases, not only once, but several times, and put them to the test through cross- ing of the same species; for, even with the most scrupulous foresight and precision, individual and rare instances have still occurred in these tedious and wearisome investigations, where the suspicion had made itself felt of a mistake or error having crept in, either in pollination or emasculation, since such results stood in direct contradiction to the usual experiences and, on a repetition of the experiment, made themselves in- controvertibly evident as an error. We believe it possible to attain no higher degree of certainty in this branch of natural science, and to be able to bring the conclusions derived therefrom to no higher proofs, than through the precise coincidence of the forms of the products, by repetition, under the same conditions with the same species, but with different individuals and at different times." {ib., p. 675.) In closing this account of Gartner's work, it will be of interest to note Focke's comment in his "Pflanzenmischlinge." "Gartner's 'Versuche und Beobachtungen' contains the essential con- tents of the prize essay for which an award was offered by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in 1830, and the contributions con- tained in his scattered papers." (1, p. 438.) As Focke says : "The work, although rich in contents, is unfortunately of an extraor- dinary clumsiness, and is therefore, on the one hand, insufficiently known and, on the other hand, frequently overrated." {ib., p. 438.) "Concerning the reliability of the assertions, one can only with dif- ficulty form a definite judgment, since the book swarms with numberless inaccuracies and contradictions : A careful special study has forced upon me the conviction that the errors in Gartner's work have proceeded from an extraordinary lack of authorship, and the inability lucidly to arrange the observations and facts." {ib., p. 438.) "So far as concerns the material which Gartner worked upon, his in- Qi^^iQAc 178 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL vestigations on hybridization move almost exclusively within the pre- viously indicated lines of Kdlreuter. He has especially experimented with the same plant genera in which Kolreuter attained success ; he has in- contestably demonstrated great persistence and restless industry in his numerous experiments, but has scarcely done anything else than to con- firm or carry further the Kolreuter investigations. As rich a source of the knowledge of hybrids as the Gartner work indeed is, one must yet never forget that it must only be used with great caution and critical circumspection." {ib., p. 438.) Focke's accurate summary is sufficient as a description of the Gartner memoir. The endeavor has been to present herein the essential facts and observations, as well as the more important conclusions which it contains. In conclusion, however, with due deference to Focke's criticisms, it may be said, attention should be called to what may be considered one of the most fundamental types of expression upon the subject treated. The physiological nature of a "species" is stated in the follow- ing sentence : "The essentiality of the species, therefore, consists in the definite re- lationship of its sexual powers to other species, which relationship, to- gether with specific form in each species, is a peculiar, special and con- stant one. Form and essence are in this connection one." (2f, p. 163.) And again : "Not the external similarity in the form and habit of species, but the harmony of the inner nature, gives the capacity for hybrid fertilization : both are likewise not always harmoniously bound together." {ib., p. 186.) In this statement is revealed a real comprehension of the phy- siological nature of species ; which comprises something else than the elementary conception of trying-out the crossing of supposed species for the purpose of determining whether their offspring are or are not sterile ; the former case proving the parentage in ques- tion as belonging to different ''species,'' the latter, as being merely "varieties'' of the same species. xAlthough the process may be the same in both cases, the method of presentation above shows a deeper conception of the process involved. 24. Wichura and the Hybridization of Willows. In 1865 appeared Wichura's memoir on the hybridization of plants (5), based upon experiments in the crossing of willows which had occupied him from 1852 to 1858, inclusive. A brief preliminary report had appeared in "Flora" in 1854, and also within the same year in the report of the Schlesische Gesellschaft. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 179 Taken as a whole, Wichura's work dealt, not with the investi- gations of individual specific characters, but with species taken entire and treated as such. As was the general custom, he regarded a "species" as an integral w^hole, that could be crossed in its en- tirety. With this conception he made what he called "binary," Plate XXXV. Max Ernest Wichura, 1817-1866, Jurist, Botanist, Regierungsrat at Breslau (1859-1866). i8o PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL "ternary," and "quaternary" crosses, i.e., crosses (l) between two species; (2) between a species and a hybrid; and (3) crosses be- tween two hybrids. Besides the smaller list of Wichura's successful crosses, he published a much longer one of his failures, which stands as evidence both of the considerable amount of crossing- work that was done, and of the scientific integrity of the experi- mentor. Of the ordinary, or, as he calls them, "binary" crosses Wichura made in all thirty-five successful crosses and combinations of such (of which ten were strictly "binary," i.e., simply crosses in the ordinary sense), between twenty-one different species of wil- lows. Although, as has been stated, Wichura, similarly to most of the other hybridists of his day, paid no attention to the crossing of characters taken as units, he remarks upon the evidence of indi- vidual characters being inherited as such : "It was of interest," he says (6, p. 27), "to observe how the unusual narrowness of the leaves in the experiment, utilizing Salix purpurea X viminalis, remained still recognizable in the following generation ; a proof that even in hybrid fertilization individual characteristics of the parent plants can be inherited." Wichura noted in willows, as others had done in other plants, the fact of a higher degree of sterility on the part of hybrids obtained between species of more distant specific relationship. The greater amount of vegetative vigor of hybrids was remarked upon by Wichura in the following words (6, p. 40) : "Not only in the reproductive organs, but also in their vegetative be- havior, hybrids show many phenomena whereby they are more or less strikingly distinguished from true species. According to the corroborating observations of Kolreuter and Gartner, a larger part of the hybrids ob- tained by them through hand crossing were distinguished by luxuriance of growth. The plants grew to a greater height than the parents, spread out farther laterally by virtue of an increased capacity for sprouting, had a longer life-period, were able to withstand cold longer, and had more abundant, larger, and earlier flowers than the parents. . . . Among the willow hybrids, similar phenomena occur, but the example of luxu- riant growth by no means constitutes the rule." Wichura further observed that : "Even the most fertile hybrids fall behind the parents in their produc- tiveness. A certain deficiency in the parts set aside for reproduction must therefore also occur with them, if we associate this in reverse relation with the excess of their vegetative development, it stands in complete harmony with the facts otherwise demonstrated. We shall therefore have PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 181 to say, in order to express the relationship correctly, that in the case of very vigorous hybrids the weakness of the sexual parts brings out an increased development of the vegetative growth, whereas it is not the case with others which are too weak for such reaction [meaning crosses between two distant species]." (6, p. 43.) Wichura concluded from his observations that hybrids were intermediate in respect to the differing parental characters. Cases of dominance do not seem to have come under his hand. "Among the numerous artificial and natural willow hybrids observed by me," he says, "I have throughout verified but one apparent exception to the principle of intermediateness. ". . . Even the time of flowering of hybrids holds the mean between the times of flowering of the two parents." {ib., p. 47.) "As rich in species as the genus of the willows is, and as numerous combinations of hybrid fertilizations as it has to show, nevertheless I have never yet verified anything of a preponderant influence in any one of its species, but rather always found that their hybrids hold the mean between the constant characters of the parents." {ib., p. 50.) "In hybrid fertilization, if unlike factors [Factoren] unite, there arises an intermediate formation, etc." {ib., p. 86.) The latter passage appears to be the first occasion where the term "factor" has been used in the literature of plant breeding, although here the "factors" referred to are perhaps the parents as a whole which participate in the cross, rather than the charac- ter-forming units from those parents. His general conclusion is (ib., p. 46.) : "Constant characters, through which the parent, species are distin- guished from one another ... go half over to the hybrid, so that it holds the middle position between them." Two observations of Gartner's were verified by Wichura — the identity of reciprocal crosses (pp. 51 and 186), and the fact of "variation" in hybrid progeny. As to the question of the relative importance of the egg or the pollen in the result of fertilization, Wichura says (p. 57) : "One sees the question is still far removed from having been brought to light, but from Gartner's and my own observations it appears at least determined, that the products of hybrid pollen in breeding are more various than those of the pollen of true species." Regarding the generally observed identity of reciprocal crosses, Wichura draws the following conclusion (p. 86) : "We have found that the products which come from reciprocal cross- ing, unlike the well-known experiments made in the animal kingdom, completely coincide with each other. "From this it must follow, however, with mathematical necessity, that i82 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL the pollen cell must have exactly the same share in the conformation of the fertilization product as the egg" So far as the writer knows, this is the first complete categorical statement in the literature of plant breeding of such a conclusion as to the behavior of the sex cells in amphimixis. One is completely impressed, in reading Wichura's work, with the scrupulous care, accuracy and precision with which his hybrid- ization experiments were carried out. One or two passages in point are interesting. Referring to a case of Gartner's, where ex- ceptional types appeared in the midst of "a greater number of hybrid plants of completely similar types," he says (p. 53) : "To judge concerning the here-mentioned exceptional types, without myself having seen them, is scarcely possible. From the relatively lim- ited number of my experiments, which have not yielded the like, I cannot, to be sure, deny its possibility; but here likewise, as above in the case of reversions, there is the suspicion of the existence of a complete disturbance of the experiment, whether that the protection had not been complete, or the pollen utilized for fertilization not pure, or the seeds sown not free from foreign admixture. Whoever knows from his own experience how much care must be observed in order to keep an experi- ment clean, becomes skeptical respecting all results of an experiment which vary from the usual rule, of the correctness of which one has not achieved conviction through his own observations," Regarding these and other so-called anomalies as the result of crossing, he again says (p. 89) : "That concerning all these points and many other disputable questions , , , we know so little has indeed its basis in part in the method hitherto of artificial cross-fertilization, which suffers from the double deficiency, that the care requisite to the correctness of the experiment, through the exclusion of foreign pollen, had not been taken in the first place, and secondly that, although many experiments have been instituted in very different families, nevertheless the individual hybrids have not been bred and observed in sufficient numbers. However, this is imperative throughout for attainment of general results. Only when one has at hand the same hybrids in hundreds of cases, partly from the same, partly from different parents, repeated through different years, only then will one be in a position to separate the essential phenomena of hybridization from the more accidental ones," Finally (p. 92), Wichura remarks, expressing the hope that a learned society or an individual with means might repeat his own experiments on a larger scale : "The most scrupulous exactness in such case would be indispensable. Failing this, and especially if the possibility of the access of foreign pollen is not completely excluded, then all experiments, the more ex- tensively they are undertaken, only contribute the more to the confusion of the matter. This must be taken to heart," PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 183 Regarding the possibility of securing a cross in any given case, Wichura remarks (p. 84) : ". . . Only such species can be united in a' hybrid, which agree in rela- tively many characters, and correspondingly in many life conditions. Experience teaches the same thing in the familiar rule, that hybrid combinations only occur between species of the same genus, or different, yet nearly related, genera." He comes to a generalization of genetic value in the following statement (p. 85) : "It is known that families die out after a few generations whose mem- bers carry in themselves the germ of a disease, and who mate only among themselves; and variety breeders know very well that all diverging char- acters of animal and plant species may be intensified when, in successive fertilization, the precaution is taken that only similarly divergent in- dividuals mate with one another." 25. Kegel on Hybridization. The views of Regel (5) on hybridization, also illustrate in an interesting manner the general attitude of the hybridists of the time on the subject of the products of crossing: "The hybrid plant always originates through sexual intermingling of two parent species, actually different from each other. Plant forms which have originated through mutual fertilization of different varieties of one and the same species are not real hybrids, but are frequently falsely regarded as such." (5, p. 59.) Regel designates the former as "true," and the latter as "false" hybrids. This point of view has, of course, long since been completely superseded by the point of view expressed by the term "the hybrid condition," with respect to such and such characters possessed by the plant. Regel carried on experiments in 1846, in the crossing of Calceolarias, in which he found that, in respect of the essential characters, the hybrids occupied an intermediate position between the two parents. 26. Carl Wilhelm von Ndgeli and the Hybrid Question. In 1865 Carl von Nageli (4c) presented a survey of the work of the earlier hybridizers. The occasion for the discussion, he says, ". . . presented itself to me from an investigation of the signification of the intermediate forms occurring in nature between many species." (4c, p. 187.) The theme of hybridization, he says, is of importance because ". . . it sheds light upon reproduction, in so far as it is the question Plate XXXVI. Carl von Nageli. ( !ri1 - iS'^l PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 185 concerning the manner in which the characters of the parents are carried over to the offspring." {ib.) Concerning the question whether hybridization could be used to reveal the then much-disputed difference between "species" and "variety," Nageli concludes that between species and varieties there exists no essential difference, in characters which either the external form, the internal structure, or the chemical composition exhibits, but that there is simply a gradual intergradation between the two. "If we compare species and varieties with regard to sexual affinity, we find no boundary which divides them. In general, the relationship is, of course, greater between varieties and lesser between species." (4c, p. 200.) This being the case, there can be no point in making the be- havior of hybrids determine whether the parents of the cross were "species," or "varieties," and yet, as Nageli remarks: "By far the most numerous and the most important investigations on hybridization have been carried on by decided adherents to specific fixity." Elsewhere Nageli refers to the origin of species and varieties in the following words : "For, when it becomes apparent that varieties are not the consequence of external influences, but are brought a^bout through inner causes, then the difference in principle between specific and varietal, constant and variable characters, is removed. One must then assume, from the tendency to vary in the plant independently from without, that it is the specific nature itself which determines variety formation. Between species and variety there exists then a causal relation, and the relation finds its logical expression in the principle that the species is nothing but a fur- ther developed variety." (4a, p. 104.) "The formation of more or less constant varieties or races is not the consequence and the expression of outer agencies, but is brought about through inner causes." {ib., p. 105.) After enumerating the list of experimenters and investigators in the field of hybridization, he says : "if, in spite of these numerous experiments, no greater agreement with respect to hybrid-formation in the plant kingdom prevails, the reason may reside in various circumstances . . . Proceeding from the un- alterableness of ^pecies, the endeavor is above all to determine the difference between species-hybrid and variety-hybrid — a difference which in reality does not exist." (4c, p. 89.) In this paragraph, Nageli briefly states the unfortunate situa- tion into which the study of hybrids had fallen. In a word, the whole matter of the study of hybridization was largely used as a means for determining degrees of distinction between species. i86 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Nageli comments truly on the meagre range of information which many investigators possessed, proceeding either from obser- vations of supposed hybrids in nature, or from conclusions derived from their own scanty experiments, which : ". . . on account of their incompleteness, and frequently on account of their inexactness, were unavailable for new theory." (4c, p. 190.) He then pertinently remarks : "The knowledge of hybridization would in recent times have made more progress, if many observers, instead of beginning anew, had made use of the results of the first-two-named German investigators fKolreuter and Gartner], who applied the labor of their lives to the solution of this problem." (4c, p. 190.) Here Nageli strikes at a weak point not only in the science of his own day, but of a later time. Resting upon the experiments of Mendel, investigators have too frequently overlooked the sug- gestions to be found in the work of the pre-Mendelian students of hybridization. Concerning the then existing state of the knowledge of crossing, he says : "No field of knowledge is less complete ; and continued, critically con- ducted experiments are in the highest degree desirable, but they can have scientific value only when they rest upon the knowledge ot what has already occurred ; when they either verify the already determined laws through new facts, or modify, extend or limit them ; in the latter case, however, showing the conditions under which these modifications appear." (4c, p. 190.) Nageli indulges in a gleam of wit at the expense of those who felt no quarrel over the species question so far as hybridization was concerned, but who relied upon the rule, that at least only species of the same "genus" could hybridize, and that therefore those species which possessed the capacity to cross must be united in the same "genus." He remarks : "if I say that all wines belong to the genus 'liquid' it does not follow therefrom that every liquid has to be a kind of wine, and that everything that is not a wine must on this account also be no liquid." (4c, p. 192.) In order to assist in obtaining a picture of the status of hybrid theory at the time of the publication of Mendel's paper, it will not be without interest to note the substance of the series of nine conclusions given by Nageli in his paper "Die Bastardbildung im Pflanzenreiche" (4c), presented before the Akademie der Wis- senschaften at Munich, December 15, 1865. It will be noted that most of these so-called "rules" bear generally upon what plants PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 187 will cross, whether the progeny are likely to be fertile or not, and the general appearance of the hybrid with respect to the parents. Briefly summarized, these are as follows : 1. "That plant-forms, which stand systematically near together, can form crosses with one another." (4c, p. 191.) from which it follows conversely that systematically nearly related plant forms may cross, the limit for crossing in general not exceeding the genus, and very often not going beyond the same section of the genus, and sometimes remaining within the species, different natural orders and genera differing in this re- gard. 2. "plant-forms cross with much more difficulty and, on reciprocal fertilization, give a much scantier number of fertile seeds, the less they are sexually interrelated. This sexual affinity is not the same in signifi- cance as systematic affinity, which makes itself evident through external differences in form, color and habit, nor as that of the inner relationship, which is based upon the chemical and physical constitution." {ib., p. 193-) Varieties and species cross with the greater difficulty, and in reciprocal crosses produce the smaller number of fertile seeds, the less closely related they are sexually. This "sexual affinity" is taken by Nageli not to be identical with systematic relationship as determined by morphological characters, color or habit, nor with the inner chemical or physical constitution. Just what "sexual affinity" thus implies is not entirely evident. Nageli illustrates the fact by the case of two plants, A and B, in which A can be fertilized by B, but not B by A, quoting Gartner's case of Nico- tiana pantculata X -^- langsdorfii in which, out of 79 flowers, 66 set fruit ; whereas, of 44 flowers of the reciprocal cross, not one set seed. Nageli remarks (p. 196), regarding sexual affinity: "As pertains to the latter, one knows nothing concerning the nature of it. Possibly it might be conditioned through external (mechanical) causes ; more probably it is connected with local chemico-physical consti- tutions lying in the sex organs. 3. "The fertility of hybrids is so much the less, . . . the farther the propagating forms are removed from one" another in sexual relationship. Species-hybrids are thus, in general, less fertile than variety-hybrids." {ib., p. 200.) 4. "The rule that the sexual affinity is so much the greater the nearer the parental forms are externally and internally related holds good only up to a certain limit, within which the fertility diminishes in both re- spects." {ib., p. 207.) The closer the sexual affinity, the easier cross-fertilization oc- i88 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL curs, the more seeds are produced, and the hybrids springing from them are the more fertile up to a certain limit, self-fertilization producing, as a rule, plants with less fertility and vegetative vigor than cross-fertilization with a nearly related variety. Crossing within the same variety is, for the most part, less favorable than crossing with a nearly related variety. 5. "If at the same time different kinds of pollen get upon the stigma, only that one becomes operative which has the greater sexual affinity." {lb., p. 210.) When two kinds of pollen reach the stigma, the one alone is effective that has the greater sexual affinity. Consequently, the presence of pollen of the same species excludes as a rule the possibility of hybrid fertilization through another species. Since fertilization through pollen of weaker affinity takes place more slowly, therefore pollen of stronger affinity which arrives some- what later may function likewise, and seeds of two kinds be pro- duced in one plant. 6. "The peculiar operation of the male material affects exclusively the germinal vesicle fertilized by it, and makes itself manifest therefore only in the embryo, and in the plant grown out of it." {ib., p. 213.) The operation of the male fertilizing material affects only the embryo-sac, and makes itself evident only in the embryo and the plant growing therefrom. The later changes are the same, no matter what the source of the pollen may be. (ib.) 7. "The hybrid sprung from the commingling of two different parental forms stands between the two in its systematic characters. For the most part, it holds about the middle position ; more seldom, it has received from one of them a preponderating share, so that it resembles the one parental form more than the other." {ib., p. 214.) A cross arising from two different parental forms stands be- tween them in respect to the systematic characters, generally more or less in the middle ; more seldom one or the other parent has a preponderant share, so that it resembles it more than the other parental form ; this being more strikingly evident in variety- than in species-hybrids. In hybrid breeding, either every character oc- cupies an intermediate position, or a part of the characters ap- proach the one, a part the other parental form. In the latter case, the division often occurs in such manner that the vegetative or- gans (stems and leaves), more nearly correspond to the one, or the reproductive (flowers and fruits), to the other. In general, the PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 189 characters go over to the hybrid the more unchanged, the more inessential they are : the more important and constant they are, the more they are intermediate structures. For this reason, par- ental characters in species-hybrids tend to be fused ; in variety- hybrids to be more or less unmodified. Whether the one or the other parental form is used as the pollen parent is of little or no significance, so far as the characters of the hybrid are concerned. Nageli holds, however, that the exchange of parents in reciprocal crossing brings about a modification of inner characters in the hybrid, which become evident in unlike fertility and in an unlike tendency to vary in the progeny, {ib.) 8. "The rule that the characters of the hybrid plant move between the corresponding ones of the parental forms does not hold good in a strict sense." {ib., p. 225.) Some characters, by virtue of individual variation, may extend over this boundary, which happens the more, the more nearly re- lated to each other the parental forms are ; hence, most nearly in the case of little different varieties. The variation from the rule in the case of species-hybrids assumes a general character, through the fact that the hybrids of nearly related species become weakened in the reproductive organs, but luxuriate in the vegetative organs, and that the hybrids of more distantly related species develop feebly in all their parts, and soon die out through lack of vital energy, {ib.) 9. "In general, hybrids vary so much the less in the first generation, the farther the parental forms are removed from one another in re- lationship ; thus species-hybrids less than variety-hybrids. The former are often distinguished by great uniformity, the latter by great diversity." {ib., p. 230.) If the hybrids are self-fertilized, the variability increases in the second and succeeding generations by so much the more, the more completely it was lacking in the first. The farther apart the paren- tal forms lie, the more certainly the offspring in the second and suc- ceeding generations fall into the three-. distinct varieties, one which corresponds to the original type, and two others which are more similar to the parental forms (Stammformen). These varieties have, however, at least in the next generation, little constancy; they change easily into one another. An actual reversion to one of the two parent forms (on pure in-breeding) occurs especially when the parental forms are very nearly related; thus with the 190 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL hybrids of varieties, and of variety-like species. When it occurs with other species-hybrids, it appears to be limited to those cases where one species has exercised a predominant influence in the hybrid fertilization, {ib.^ p. 231.) Regarding "variability" in hybrids in general, Nageli remarks : "Variability of the hybrids, that is to say, the diversity of forms which belong to the same generation, and their behavior on propagation once or many times by self-fertilization, form two points in the study of hybridization which are still least ascertained, and which the least ap- pear to be subjected to fast rules." {ib., p. 231.) "Among the species-hybrids, there are also some which already in the first generation show a noticeable variability. These are especially those which are derived from very nearly related species, as the hybrid of Lychnis diurna Sibth. X Lychnis vespertina Sibth. The least variability is found as a rule in the hybrids of those parent species which possess a slender mutual relationship." {ib., p. 232.) In the case of allied species, each of which has similar variety types, according to Nageli, the mutually similar types cross more readily than the others ; e.g., Verbascum blattaria Linn, and Ver- bascum lychnitis Linn, have both yellow and white-flowered vari- eties. The white-flowered V. blattaria crosses more readily with the white-flowered V. lychnitis^ and vice-versa, and the same holds good as to the number of hybrid seeds produced. The following statement appears to be the nearest approach to an observation of anything like a "Mendelian" character to be found in Niigeli's writings: "when the hybrids are self-fertilized, the variability increases so much the more in the second and succeeding generations, the more it was lack- ing in the first, and indeed the farther apart the parental forms lie from one another, the more certainly three different varieties spring up, one which corresponds to the original [i.e., hybrid] type, and the two others which are more like the parental forms." {ib., p. 230.) Despite the existence of correspondence between Mendel and Nageli, the latter does not so much as mention Mendel's Hiera- cium crosses, even in the somewhat extensive paper of twenty- nine pages, of March 10, 1866, "Die systematische Behandlung der Hieracien, riicksichtlich der Mittelformen" (4h). A further epitomization of rules or conclusions regarding hy- brids appears, in the form of seven summarized statements and commentaries thereupon, in Nageli's paper (4f). 1. Nageli concludes that the hybrid in all its parts is an en- tirely normal phenomenon, and is distinguished in no manner PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 191 from all other plants. A plant can thus not be distinguished imme- diately as being of hybrid origin. 2. Since species-hybrids are frequently fertile, and the indi- viduals of pure species not seldom infertile, the perfect or im- perfect structure of the sex-organs is not decisive concerning the nature of an organism. From the sterility of the male and female organs, nothing can thus be summarily concluded regarding hy- bridity, or from the fertility of the same regarding their pure origin. 3. Hybrids constitute a regular intermediate formation, since they have inherited their characters from the two parental species in almost equal measure. An extension beyond this occurs only in a very limited and quite definite manner. Since the capacity for sexual reproduction becomes weakened, and the vegetative activities especially aroused, he therefore con- cludes : "We can hence take a plant into consideration as a hybrid, only when its systematic characters can respond to these demands." (p. 300.) The total point of view regarding the hybrid, as Nageli con- siders it to be, is even more definitely summarized in the next succeeding sentence. "When it is a question of the hybrid nature of a plant, the first and most important criterion is that it be a middle form between two definite species. This requirement is often left out of consideration." And again : "For the correct estimation of hybrids, it is especially to be remem- bered that the most constant and important characters hold most ex- actly the mean between the parent species, and that, on the other hand, a character can so much the more approach the one species, the more unimportant it is." (4f, p. 300.) 4. Between two forms there exists only one hybrid middle form, indifferently whichever of the parental forms was used as the pollen parent. On the other hand, the hybrid may form vari- eties, which approach the parents in- an irregular manner. 5. Hybrid fertilization takes place through foreign pollen, when its own pollen is kept away from the stigma. 6. Species-hybrids have, as a rule, either quite infertile or weakened reproductive organs. In the latter case they form, on self-fertilization, a limited number of viable seeds, and die out after a few or several generations. 192 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Pollination through one of the two parent species, however, excludes self-fertilization, and the hybrid reverts back to this parental species. The hybrid middle-forms between species have accordingly no constancy, and disappear again after a short time. According to the relationship of the parental forms, they appear in three ways : (i) In the species with the most limited relationship: as a middle-form, present in an extremely few quite infertile indi- viduals, without transition-forms to the parental species. (2) In species with limited relationship: as a scanty middle- form with restricted fertility, and with individual transition- forms to one or the other of the two parent species. (3) In species with close relationship: as a more or less scanty middle-form with partial fertility, and with numerous transition- forms to both the parent species. 7. There are other intermediate forms, which are distinguished through greater individual numbers, and through complete fer- tility and constancy. They appear in three ways : (1) As an isolated middle-form; the gaps between it and the two principal species being mostly tilled up by scanty hybrid transition-forms. (2) As two or several isolated middle-forms which lead by degrees from one principal species to another ; the gaps between these and between them and the principal forms being filled up through limited hybrid transition stages. (3) An unnoticeable transition series between the two principal species, in which all the members are represented by numerous and completely fertile individuals. The hybridity of these con- stant intermediate forms is apparently evidenced by their occur- rence solely in company with the parental forms. In one passage (4c, p. 229), Nageli remarks upon the fact of heterosis in species-hybrids, i.e., the fact that species-hybrids show, in the whole vegetative sphere in the widest sense, "... a striking tendency to vegetative luxuriance ; in this respect they ordinarily transcend the two parental varieties." A statement of a rather general character regarding species- crosses is made as follows (4e, p. 260) : "when two species together form a hybrid, the characters in which the parents differ from one another do not go over to it complete, but PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 193 they are united to form intermediate characters, which are only incom- pletely accommodated." Farther on (p. 263), he comments on the fact that two hybrid- izing forms, because they furnish each a single fertilizing cell, share, equally in the hybrid product. It is not assumed, he says, that two different plants have their reproductive cells qualita- tively and quantitatively similarly fitted out, but it may be as- sumed on the contrary, that the reproductive cells of different species, varieties, and individuals, are always dissimilarly consti- tuted, and that hence that plant which forms the active material in greatest quantity and of best quality has always the preponder- ance in the fertilization. The discussion of the nature of the hybrid in "Die Theorie der Bastardbildung" (4e) is further to be summarized as follows : Two species of different genera, or of different sections of the same genus, do not ordinarily bring about cell division in the embryo, the fertilization remaining without result. If the hybrid-^ izing forms are a little more nearly related, the embryo remains few-celled and dies out. With nearer relationship, the embryo de- velops but does not germinate ; or it germinates, but forms a very weakly plant which soon dies, or else a weakly plant which flowers but does not bear seed. As the relationship of the parental forms becomes closer, the vitality of the hybrid increases, reaching its maximum as a rule, when nearly related varieties mutually cross. He concludes that the unlike viability of the product proceeding from self-fertilization, in-breeding, crossing of varieties, and the hybridization of species, respectively, is due to the greater or lesser degree of disturbances taking place in the individual, and the general initial adaptability of the fertilizing cells. Since vege- tative growth and reproduction are two essentially different func- tions, two types of mutual adaptation must be assumed, the vege- tative and the sexual. Neither of these is complete, inasmuch as the one partly excludes the other. The sexual harmony (Concor- danz) is much more easily disturbed than the vegetative. Hence, under deleterious influences, a plant usually limits, first its seed reproduction, and long afterward its vegetative activity. The in- fertility of a hybrid depends upon the disturbance of the sexual adaptation, i.e., upon whether the pollen tube of the one and the germinal vesicle of the other form a union capable of develop- 194 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL ment. It is sometimes the case, that the pollen tubes of A have a greater sexual attraction to the germinal vesicle of B, than the pollen tubes of B to the germinal vesicle of A. Hybrids are stated to possess one character in common, that they are much more in- clined to variation than are the pure forms. This variability, ac- cording to Nageli, in the case of variety-hybrids, occurs in the first generation ; in the case of species-hybrids, in the second or later generations. Sometimes, Nageli proceeds, the offspring re- semble, not the parents but the grandparents, and characters sometimes come into appearance in a later generation, which were present in a previous generation, but which afterwards disap- peared. The organism may, at the same time, harbor several ten- dencies, of which some attain to development sooner, others later, and others not at all. He continues : "It is now comprehensible that pre-eminently two tendencies are lo- cated in the hybrid, the one that it should resemble the father, the other that it should resemble the mother. Correspondingly, the changes in the second and following generations consist especially in this, that forms develop which are very similar to the two parent forms." (p. 285.) The tendency of cultivated plants to vary more than wild plants may, according to Nageli, have a double cause. On the one hand, through the long operation of partly unnatural conditions, the balance is seriously disturbed, and hence a stimulation is given to inner changes. More important is the circumstance that natural selection does not take place, or only in a direction cor- responding to the demands of cultivation. In the wild condi- tion, the incipient new varieties perish, since, in the struggle for existence, only the most advantageous variation persists. In cul- tivation, on the other hand, all individual variations, so far as they form seeds and do not run counter to the demands of culti- vation, reproduce and form new indi.vidual modifications through crossing with other variations. A physiological question discussed by Nageli, is that of the relative infertility of species-hybrids. For example, according to Gartner's experiment which Nageli cites, the hybrids between Lo- belia cardinalis Linn, and Lobelia fulgens Willd. ripened 900 seeds per capsule; the parents, on the other hand, 1,100 to 1,200. Lychnis-diurria Sibth. X L. vespertina Sibth. produced 90 to 125; the parents 150 to 190 seeds. Datura stramonium X -0. tatula PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 195 Linn, gave 220 to 280 seeds ; the parents 600 to 800 seeds. There are other hybrids, as Nageli says, which produce only ^4' i/^' 1/10, or 1/20 as many seeds as the parent species. This weaken- ing of sexual vigor in species-hybrids, as Nageli says, also ". . . shows itself plainly in the fact that all species-hybrids give fewer seeds by self-fertilization than when pollinated by one of the parent species." (4c, p. 202.) A question of scientific moment, is discussed by Nageli in re- spect to the nature of reciprocal crosses. In most of Kolreuter's and Gartner's crosses, as Nageli says, the results of the crosses were so much alike that a difference in point of deviation was not to be recognized. In the case of some plants, however, a slight difference showed itself ". . . more frequently in the form and color of the flowers, more seldom in the form and substance of the leaves." (4c, p. 217.) Nageli calls attention also to the fact brought out by Gartner's investigations, that in some cases, where reciprocal crosses are identical, yet their progeny derived from self-fertilization show differences. Gartner's cases are cited, of Digitalis purpurea X D. lutea, and Dianthus pulchellus X D. arenarius, as being more "variable" in their progeny than their reciprocals. What this par- ticular mode of variability in the first generation may consist in is not stated. The general state of knowledge in Nageli's time of the be- havior of plants in crossing, since made clear through Mendel's results, is well exemplified in his statement as follows: "if it is certain that in hybrid formation, in individual cases, the one parental form shares more actively than the other, still the question may be reasonably asked, whether the hybrid ever inherits mathematically equally much from its parents ; whether the one or the other parental form has not always the preponderance. This is, of course, probable, but facts are still lacking which are able to decide the question in one or the other direction." (4c, p. 222.) Mendel's work solved in part this" very problem, to the extent of showing the presence of so-called "dominant" factors in the one or the other parent. Nageli's paper (4b), here reviewed, was read before the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences at Munich, December 15, 1865. The preceding February 8 and March 8 of the same year witnessed the reading of Mendel's paper on hybrid- ization, before the Natural History Society of Briinn. In other 196 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL words, less than one year before the question as to the reason for the preponderance of one parental contribution over the other, was siated by Nageli as lacking facts for its elucidation, Mendel had already presented the facts explaining dominance, Nageli, from the then generally existing point of view, stated the mode of transfer of the characters in hybrids as follows : "The characters of the parental forms are, as a rule, so carried over to the hybrid that, in every individual one, the mutual influence makes itself felt. One character does not go over as it were unchanged from one, the other unchanged from the other parental form, but there occurs an inter-penetration of the paternal and the maternal character, and an intimacy between their characters." (4c, p. 222.) Here again we have a statement which has been modified by Mendel's discovery of dominance in variety-crosses. Nageli re- marks, however, that those who have largely or exclusively crossed varieties, or in crosses have given their attention to "varietal characters" so-called, are of the opinion that the char- acters go over unchanged, quoting the results of Sageret's ex- periments referred to in a previous article. Despite these cases of what is now known as dominance, Nageli states the general rule as he saw it, thus : "The rule, however, is that the characters of the father and the mother combine and interpenetrate, w^hereby a new individual character origi- nates which holds more or less the mean. The way and manner in which the union occurs cannot be determined in advance." {ib., p. 224.) Regarding the vigor of first-generation hybrids, Nageli remarks as follows : "Growth and development of the individual is especially aroused in species-hybrids. These are frequently larger than their two parents. They form more and larger leaves, the stem is raised higher, and branches more vigorously, and effects multiplication more easily through stolons, rhizomes, etc. . . . Hybrids are also distinguished through the fact that they bloom longer and more abundantly than the two parent forms. The hybrid of plants which bloom first in the second year, blooms for the most part in the first; the hybrid of plants which only come to flower formation after a series of years, arrives thereat a few years earlier. Likewise, with regard to the individual vegetative period, the rule holds good that the hybrids begin to bloom earlier in the year and continue to bloom later in the fall. In general, they often form quite a large quantity of flowers, which are especially larger, sometimes also more fragrant and intensely colored, and of which each individual one lasts longer, for example several days ; when the flowers of the parent species wilt after the first day." {ib., p. 228.) This closes the account of Nageli's contribution to the literature PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 197 of hybrids — a rather clear, complete,, and searching review of the fundamental matters in respect to hybridization, as they were realized and generally understood at that time. In view of the considerable attention at one time aroused by Nageli's theory of the idioplasm, and the fact that it is interesting historically as a presentation of a theory thought to be possibly operative in the case of amphimixis, it seems desirable to intro- duce at this point a presentation of Nageli's contribution to the theory of the factors in development (Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der /\bstammungslehre). (41, pp. 822, 1884.) It is hoped that the historical value of the contribution, theoretically speak- ing, as being one of the last of the unitary theories of descent propounded before the discovery of Mendel's investigations, will make amends for the quantity of the material necessarily intro- duced. Nageli considers that the substance containing the "Anlagen" (the "Plasmasubstanz") consists of different modifications of albumins, the molecules of which are united in molecular groups of crystalline form, which he calls "micellae," soluble and in- soluble forms commingled, forming a half-fluid, slime-like mass. This organization he designates as the "stereoplasm," of which he considers that only the smaller portion represents the actual "Anlagen" or factors. From what Nageli calls the "Anlage-plasm^" i.e., the gene- protoplasm, there is a definite movement of a developmental character, leading to a cell-complex of greater or less size, such as a certain leaf, root, etc. This protoplasmic series Nageli desig- nates briefly as the "idioplasm," as distinguished from the re- maining "stereoplasm." (^i, p. 23.) Crossing, or rather amphi- mixis, is considered to be the cause of bringing the factors of lesser S'trength into development. Crossing especially is supposed to be one of the causes for the development of the "Anlagen" (factor-rudiments) of lesser potency, that is to say, those still in process either of origination, or of disappearance. Latent Anlagen^ come more easily into development through amphimixis than through sexual modes of propagation, (ib., p. 24.) Differences in 1 The German word "Anlagen" being practically untranslatable will be used henceforth without further comment, for "rudiments of factors," etc. 198 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL growth, internal organization and external conformation, as well as in the activities of the organism, are conditioned by number- less differences in the chemical and plastic processes of the living material, and by numberless combinations of the operative forces, all of which are due to "the unlike form, size and arrangement of the micellae of the idioplasm." (p. 26.) This being the case, then equality in respect to the inheritance, is conditioned by the combining cells containing, on fertilization, equal amounts of the idioplasmic material. Cases where a pre- ponderance in the inheritance is on the side of the male or the female parent, respectively, ". . . must be explained through the fact that a greater quantity of idioplasm occurs, now in the unfertilized egg cells, now in the sperma- tozoa uniting with them." (p. 27.) The difference in potency of the idioplasm is indicated by the fact that the male fertilization-plasma in the spermatozoid may amount, in Nageli's view, to only one or two parts of the mass of that of the female in the unfertilized egg cell or primordial vesicle, and yet, if it contains an equal number of hereditary units (Anlagen), then these must possess a hundred times more "idioplastic power" than those of the egg. This purely empirical mass theory of the mechanics of heredity preceded the chromo- some explanation of the facts. With regard to the relative total amount of the idioplasm, Nageli holds that it is probable that only a very small part is to be designated as the idioplasm proper, while the remainder must be regarded as trophoplasm or nutritive plasm. "The activity of the idioplasm makes itself everywhere evident where an heritable process of growth or metamorphosis takes place. Its pres- ence in these places may therefore be presumed. When, on the contrary, there are places where neither growth nor metamorphosis can take place, it is presumed that the cause may either be due to lack of the idioplasm or partly to the fact that a proper mixture of idioplasm and tropho- plasm is lacking." (p. 29.) The idioplasm is presumed to be in a continual state of migra- tion toward the places of development, and the growth processes are determined, first by the constitution of the idioplasm, secondly by its quantity, and thirdly by the manner in which it is com- mingled with the trophoplasm. (p. 29.) Nageli holds that either the idioplasm changes continually dur- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 199 ing the growth process, returning with the formation of the em- bryo to its original constitution in the initial cell, or else it main- tains the same constitution, and the altered conditions of time and place in the individual's life-history affect its potentiality, (p. 30.) Attention is called to the fact that a branch with different char- acters from those of other branches, may grow out from a tree, a case, manifestly, in which external conditions do not come into play. In such cases, the idioplasm has evidently undergone a phylogenetic metamorphosis, (p. 31.) It is assumed to be possible for the idioplasm to change within definite limits, during indi- vidual growth. The idioplasm of each of the different cells of an individual may be considered, for practical purposes, as differ- ent, "insofar as it possesses an individual productive capacity." (p. 31.) The development into activity of the Anlagen in the idioplasm is conditioned to some extent by the nutrition, e.g., whether, in the case of certain trees, foliage or flower shoots are formed, or vegetative growth without flower formation at all, under unfavorable climatic conditions, (p. 32.) The variety in the growth processes in the idioplasm is conceived of as possible in the following manner : The idioplasmic structure represents a fixed arrangement, and its parts (the micellae) may be conceived of as lying in rows in several dimensions crossing one another, so that the same particle always belongs to rows of divergent space-dimensions. Growth of the idioplasm is the growth of these rows through the accession of new micellae, uniformly interca- lated, or through end-deposition. The idioplasm may increase either through the growth of the rows alone, through the exten- sion in width of the cross-rows, or through the growth of rows in some oblique direction. The growth of the rows in question to some determined dimension results in the development of a defi- nite "Anlage." (p. 34.) This structure of an idioplasmatic system, Nageli holds, is analogous to that of other organized bodies, which consists of crystalline micellae, comprising a larger or smaller number of molecules. "The starch grains give us a presentment of the idioplasm. Both are fixed micellar systems, which lie free in the cell contents, in the cell-sap or in the half-fluid plasm, and which grow through the intercalation of micellae." The idioplasm, constructed as surmised above, "can be known 200 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL only in one dimension, namely, in that in which its autogenetic growth takes place." However, the idioplasm in an individual propagating vegetatively may retain its arrangement unchanged to the smallest particular. This fact, it appears, can be explained in no other way than by the fact of the idioplasm being ar- ranged in firmly converging parallel rows, which grow through micellar intercalation, the structural arrangement remaining the same. (p. 38.) One assumption, which as Nageli says, "is scarcely to be proved out of hand," is that the idioplasm constitutes a connected net throughout the entire organism. "This will assume in the cells, according to their construction, a differ- ent form; ordinarily, however, in the longer plant cells, forming a mem- brane over the surface, frequently also running through the cell cavity and especially crowded together in the nucleus." (p. 41.) Since all the chemical and plastic processes of an heritable nature are regulated through the idioplasmic fibrils, these must be everywhere present throughout the different parts of the cells, and communication must be supposed to take place between the idioplasms located in the different parts of the organism. "The idioplasm-net probably lies at the basis of the so frequently recurring net-like arrangement of the plasma, and the net-like structure of the nuclear substance." (p. 41.) The idioplasm is conceived as originating the trophoplasm, and thereby the non-albuminous constructive material, and determines the form of the latter, fp. 47.) Nageli considers that the irritabil- ity of the micellar rows of the idioplasm is not to be expressed in terms of periods similar to those of nerve-activity, but that it extends over a longer time — days, weeks, and months, during which time the active idioplasm increases, fp. 47.) Nageli considers it improbable that the growth of the micellar row itself determines the development of the corresponding "An- lagen," but rather that both phenomena are brought about by a like cause. "The effect, which the idioplasm group, engaged in active growth, exercises upon the surrounding idioplasm, may occur in a manner simi- lar to that exerted by the plasma of the yeast cells upon the fermenta- tion material." (p. 48.) The process of operation of the micellar rows of the idioplasm Nageli considers theoretically to be as follows : PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 201 The ontogenetic development of the individual begins, during which time the micellar rows in the idioplasm which cause the first developmental stage become active. This induces a passive growth of the other rows, and an increase, perhaps manifold, of the entire idioplasm. A tension arises from inequality in the growth-intensities of the different rows, which sooner or later, according to the number, arrangement, and energy of the active rows, brings the process to a standstill ; the tension is felt as a stimulus due to disturbance of equilibrium, and this tension is shifted from one group of Anlagen to another, until all are passed through, and the ontogenetic development arrives again at the original embryonal state, during the reproductive period, (p. 40.) The effect of nutrition upon the idioplasm is interpreted by Nageli as follows : The nutritional, stimuli, generally speaking, although they do not alter the idioplasm qualitatively, may still affect the develop- ment of the Anlagen, so that Anlagen which might otherwise re- main latent now come into development, or, the nutrition being lacking, their development is checked. Nageli considers it possible that the idioplasm may only return approximately, during the reproduction stage, to its original con- stitution, and that a slow phylogenetic metamorphosis may take place, fp. 53.) It is manifest, as he says, that, in order for this to occur, the external influences must either directly or indirectly bring about a metamorphosis of the idioplasm, (p. 54.) In order for the idioplasm undergoing change in some specific part of the organism to bring about alterations in the rest, the result must be achieved in either a material or a dynamic way. By the former method, Nageli conceives it possible that all the cells communi- cate with one another and with the nearest sieve tubes by means of very fine pores. "The sieve-tubes, however, which represent large canals with laterally- large openings in the uninterrupted partition-walls, bring about the ex- change between the most different and distant organs." (p. 56.) According to the dynamic theory, if all plant cells communi- cated with one another through fine pores, then these pores con- tain, besides the trophoplasm, also idioplasm, "so that the latter forms a connecting system through the whole organism." The net-like connection then of the idioplasm throughout the organ- 202 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL ism, from cell to cell through the pore-canals, makes possible the transfer of stimuli in a manner analogous to that of the nerves, (p. 58.) For transmission to a distant point in the organism, ". . . there requires to be not merely a single stimulus, but rather a sum of various stimuli to be transmitted, which are able to cause a qualita- tively definite process." This sense-image conduction through the idioplasm is conceived of as being brought about by organized albuminous bodies. "This theory of dynamic participation appears to me to solve the question at hand in the simplest manner. The idioplasm of all the cells of a plant exists in immediate contact. Every change which it experiences in any place becomes everywhere recognized, and in a corresponding manner utilized. We must assume that the stimulus that operates locally is immediately telegraphed everywhere, and everywhere has the same effect; for everywhere a continuous and general sensation which the idioplasm experiences explains the otherwise impressive fact, that the idioplasm, despite the so dissimilar conditions of nutrition and stimulus to which it is exposed in the different parts of an organism, yet develops and changes everywhere in completely like manner, as we especially recognize from the fact that the cells of the root, the stem, and the leaf, produce exactly the same individual." Nageli now constructs a theory of sex development as follows: A peculiar category of Anlagen may occupy a middle place between stability and instability, formed by the cohesion of two or more Anlagen, of which one must develop to the exclusion of the other. This will depend now upon internal and now upon external causes. "Thus, doubtless, it is inner, but still unknown causes which, in the case of organisms in which the sexes are separate, determine whether, in a developing embryo, the male or female organism reaches develop- ment." (p. 194.) We thus have a purely theoretical conception of sex-equilibrium as existing in the groups of Anlagen in the idioplasm, of which external causes of some sort stimulate the development of some rather than that of their partners in the equilibrium. Nageli emphasizes the conception that the increase of the idio- plasm in ontogenetic development takes place ". . . through the longitudinal growth of the rows, namely, through intercalary insertion of micellae in every micellar row, which thereby elongates, without altering their cross-sectional configuration." (p. 531.) Each row, therefore, is considered to contain all the Anlagen which the individual has inherited in the embryo, and each cell PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 203 accordingly is entire in respect to its idioplasmic content, and is idioplasmatically capacitated to become the germ of a new indi- vidual, (p. 531.) The evolution process, from the standpoint of the idioplasm, is depicted by Nageli in the following manner : "The idioplasm through accretion [mit der Zunahme] steadily changes its configuration in the successive ontogenies, but relatively slowly ; so that from the embryo of one generation to the embryo of the next genera- tion it makes a small amount of progress. The summation of these progress-differentials through a whole line of descent represents the genetic history of an organism, since the latter through its idioplasm alone holds together in unbroken continuity with the unicellular be- ginning of the stock." (p. 532.) "since further, in embryo-formation, the new ontogeny begins as a unicellular individual, so that the Anlagen of the idioplasm come into development which have arisen in the unicellular ancestor, and simi- larly the successively following development of the Anlagen which have their origin in their analogous ancestors, the two cooperating causes, the phylogenetic configuration of the idioplasm successively following, and the developmental stages of the individual conditioned by these, have, as a necessary consequence, that the ontogeny is the recapitulation of the phylogeny." (p. 533.) In the idioplasm of an embryo, the micellar rows of Anlagen from the respective parents may in some cases, Nageli holds, have a medium composition, due apparently to the merging of the micellar rows of the two parents. In such cases, intermediate characters will develop. Or, on the other hand, "The paternal and maternal rows lie unaltered in the idioplasm of the child, and in different grouping in relation to one another, and bring about in the organism the characters from the two sides, either unmodi- fied beside one another, or only one of the parental characters, while the other remains latent." (p. 534.) The relative development or latency of the inherited Anlagen in the child determines the degree of resemblance to the one or the other parent. The theory of descent, then, is concisely stated by Nageli as follows : "since from one ontogeny to the next following, idioplasm alone is carried over, therefore the phylogenetic development consists only of the continuous formation of the idioplasm, and the entire pedigree, from the primordial drop of plasma to the now living organism (plant or animal), is really nothing else than an individual consisting of idio- plasm, which in every ontogeny, forms a new individual body corre- sponding to its progress." (p. 541.) "of heredity as a specific phenomenon, if we hold the internal essence of the organisms in view, there can really be no discussion, since the 204 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL line of descent is a continuous individual of idioplasm. In this case it is nothing but the persistence of the organized substance in a changing process of movement or the necessary passing over of one idioplasmatic configuration into the next following. And it is not alone between the ontogenetically different plant- and animal-individuals, but also within these individuals everywhere present, where every individual part (cells, organs) follows another in time. Heritable phenomena are such as of necessity pass over to the following generations, and in general such as have their seat in the idioplasm, since the non-idioplasmic substance is only capable of continuing through a limited number of cell genera- tions." (p. 542.) 27. Treatise of W. O. Focke. The last of the hybridists of the older school who engaged in extensive publication, was Wilhelm Olbers Focke, who published in 1881, his 'Tflanzenmischlinge," a work of 569 pages (1), con- sisting primarily of a systematic arrangement, according to or- ders, families, and genera, of plant hybrids known to have been produced by various experimenters up to his time, or reported as having been found wild. This arrangement, while it made no pretension to completeness, was yet the most thorough and exten- sive single compendium of the kind yet published. "I have," he says, "so far as it was possible, examined the statements met with, have not quoted the least credible at all ; others I have ac- cepted as questionable, but, in the case of the most of the information, I have had no reason for doubting the correctness of the observations, even though, on the other hand, I could not regard them as confirmed or sufficiently vouched for." (p. 3.) "At all events," Focke remarks, "through the present collection of known facts, it will, as I think, be rendered essentially easier to find the objects toward which future investigations concerning plant crosses must be directed." {ib., p. 2.) In the case of most hybrids, especially those occurring wild, Focke contented himself with brief references concerning their occurrence, but entered into more extended consideration of the more carefully investigated hybrids produced by hand-pollina- tion. Focke himself was not extensively engaged in investigations in hybridization. "To my regret," he says, "l have never been in a situation to institute hybridization experiments on a large scale, nevertheless, through crosses and breeding carried on by myself, I have at least gained some practical experience, which should be of decided use for the estimation of the statements of others." {ih., p. 3.) As to the results of his observations however, Focke came to PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 205 an important generalization regarding the size of F^ hybrids; that the characters of crosses are derived from the characters of the parent species ; and that only in size and luxuriance^ as well i^'j^nih .v.Y.Y. ii. W. O. Focke, d. 1922. 206 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL as in sexual capacity^ are hybrids for the most part distinguished from the two parental species. Crosses between different races and species are distinguished from individuals of a pure race by their vegetative activity. Hybrids between markedly different races, he remarks, are fre- quently very tender, especially in youth, so that the rearing of the seedlings takes place with difficulty. Hybrids between more nearly related species and races^ on the other hand^ are as a rule thrifty and vigorous; they are distinguished for the most part by size, rapidity of growth, early flowering, abundance of bloom, long duration of life, marked capacity of reproduction, unusual size of individual organs and similar characteristics. "Complete reversions to the parental types, without the operation of the pollen of the parents, occur only in the case of the hybrids of nearly related races." Focke's own experiments were made in the crossing of species of Raphanus, Melandryum, Rubus, Anagallis, Digitalis, and Nico- tiana. While the actual number of crosses made by Focke was few, and the results, as in the case of most other observers of hybrid phenomena, were not analyzed in respect to the generations of the hybrids, yet in the one case of a cross made between Digi- talis purpurea X ^« ambigua Focke made measurements of cer- tain organs in the parents and in the hybrids, which, so far as the writer's inquiry has extended, with the exception of those of Upper calyx apex Remaining calyx apex Length of the corolla upper lower Width of the corolla Height of the corolla length width (mm.) (mm.) length width (mm.) (mm.) Digitalis purpurea 22 4 22 10 44 54 20 15 Digitalis ambigua 9 1-5 11 2 31 40 16 13 Digitalis purpurea X ambigua i8 3 20 5 38 45 18 15 Summary of Averages Average of length measurements, assuming a mean condition to be the normal Average of width measurements Theoretical Found mm. 26.3 9-6 mm. 23.0 7.0 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 207 Darwin and Mendel, and the single experiments of Henslow, also with Digitalis^ and of MacFarlane with a number of other species, constitute the only quantitative measurements made upon hybrid cases prior to 1900. The data are few, but are historically inter- esting. They show the intermediate condition in the F^ generation in respect to length and width of the organs measured, (p. 320.) By Focke's time (1881) the details regarding the behavior of hybrids had sufficiently accumulated so that he was able to say : "Our knowledge concerning the fertilization of plants has noticeably- extended during recent decades, so that we are no longer in a position to group the facts together, as has been customary, under a few general standpoints. The multifariousness of the phenomena in organic nature is enormously greater than one has thus far been accustomed to assume." (p. 446.) Focke had distinctly the physiological rather than the morpho- logical point of view regarding hybrids and hybridization, and was not bound by wooden or stereotyped conventions of thought regarding the systematic relations of species. "Taken as a whole, it is correct, that the groups of forms do not as a rule very well admit of being delimited according to their sexual be- havior. The degrees of morphological and physiological differences cor- respond to one another frequently somewhat exactly, yet there are ex- amples in which this is absolutely not the case." (p. 448.) Again he expresses a plastic point of view in this regard, in the following words : "One will do well not to judge the morphological relations between two plant forms according to their physiological behavior and vice versa. It is a question in every case of- determining the facts, but not to force them into a definite mould. "Under all circumstances, from the beha'vior of hybrids, one may only with great care be able to draw conclusions concerning the specific like- ness or unlikeness of the parental forms." (p. 449.) The fact that, as a rule, the nearer the systematic relationship becomes, the more readily what are called "species" cross, was naturally sufficiently recognized by Focke. "Two essentially different species can scarcely ever completely mu- tually fertilize each other." (p. 457.) "Many hybrids, especially those between unlike parent species, are, as stated, unfruitful ; the most show a diminished, a few an almost normal fertility." (p. 457.) "A delimitation of genera in such a manner that all species which are able to furnish hybrids among one another may be placed in the same genus, would be extremely unnatural. On the other hand, it is not far- 2o8 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL fetched to think of limiting the boundary of a genus to species which are capable of mutual fertilization." (p. 456.) "We may therefore assert the rule that the races of one and the same species, or of very nearly related species, almost always are capable of mutual fertilization without special difficulty." (p. 450.) Focke calls attention to the interesting fact that different families and different genera are very unlike in respect to their capacity for cross-fertilization. "In some families, individual genera show very great differences in their tendency to and their capacity of hybridization." (p. 451.) However, "whether two species may be crossed with one another or not, can only be determined with certainty through experiment." (p. 451.) Focke calls attention to the matter of ecological species in rela- tion to crossing, that deserves much further investigation. "It appears to be difficult to cross plants with one another, which in- habit very different zones, or very different habitats (water and dry places). When it succeeds, the hybrids are sterile." (p. 453.) However, he calls attention to the fact that : "The origin of plants from the old or the new world, from the north- ern or the southern hemisphere, forms in and for itself no hindrance to crossing. Evergreens and deciduous, day-blooming and night-blooming plants may often cross without difficulty." (p. 454.) "In some genera or groups of species, in which hybrids easily origi- nate, there are individual species which appear to be more inclined than others to enter into hybrid combinations." (p. 454.) Focke calls attention to the fact that hybrid formation between two species does not always succeed equally easily in both direc- tions, mentioning the case of Mirabilis jalapa X M. longifiora : "Many other cases are furnished by breeders of hybrids, in which hybridization has succeeded in only one way. if, however, the experiments have not been carried on frequently and in various places, and with different individuals and races of the parents, one can draw no far- reaching conclusions from the failure." (p. 455.) "it has not seldom been observed that two species are mutually able to effectively pollinate each other, but that A produces more seeds with the pollen of B, then B with the pollen of A." (p. 455.) According to Focke, ". . . most of these cases come from Gartner's experience, and require still further confirmation, if indeed the occurrence of this relation may not be completely questioned." (p. 455.) Focke calls attention to an impression he had gained: "That genera with more or less zygomorphic flowers, which belong to families in which actinomorphy prevails, show quite an especial inclina- tion toward hybrid formation. "whoever is not able to recognize immediately from his own observa- tion the fluidity and mutability of the series of living forms, a few PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 209 newly-described intermediate forms will certainly not convince him of the correctness of the doctrine of descent. The more earnestly and care- fully one proceeds in the exploration of truth, so much the more gain will science and the theory of evolution derive from the investigation." (p. 463-) Focke disposes of the question whether a plant pollinated from two sources could produce double-pollinated seeds, in the follow- ing words : "By analogy with animal fertilization-phenomena, it is to be regarded as unquestionable, that every single ovule can only be fertilized by a single pollen tube. It is a fact that, in all experiments carried out with scientific precision, no hybrid has ever been obtained, in which the operation of more than one parental species was to be recognized, no matter how many kinds of pollen might be placed upon the stigmas of the maternal flowers." (p. 448.) On the basis of the available data, Focke undertook to formu- late a series of statements or rules, embodying the laws of the behavior of hybrids so far as the then existing information made it possible to do so. This was the first direct attempt after Nageli, among the hybridizers of the older school, to formulate a com- plete, coherent statement of principles from the extensive body of data connected with hybridization. The five laws or principles which Focke laid down are as follows : 1. "All individuals derived from the crossing of two pure species or races are, when produced and grown under like conditions, as a rule completely alike, or are scarcely more different from one another than specimens of one and the same pure species are accustomed to he." (p. 469.) As corollary to this statement, the following is appended: "Least difficult to answer is the question, concerning which it has been most strenuously contended, namely, that of the greater influence of the one or the other sex on the type of the progeny. The hybrids of the two species or races, A and B, are like each other, indifferently whether A was the male or the female parent-species in the cross. ... It is deter- mined through numerous experiments rather that in the plant kingdom in general, in the case of true species, the form-determining power of the male and the female elements in the cross are completely like one another." (pp. 469-70.) Focke modified this statement, however, by saying that : "Like all other rules of hybridization, so likewise is that of the simi- larity of both products of crossing not without exceptions. It is never- theless self-evident that a perchance observed dissimilarity can be re- garded as conditioned by the stronger operation of the male or the fe- male element only when the experiments have been instituted in like manner, and when they, by several times repetition, have always led to the same result." (p. 470.) 210 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 2. ''The characters of hybrids are derived from the characters of the parents. Only in size and luxuriance, as in sexual power, are they dis- distinguished for the most part from both parents!' (p. 473.) With regard to the manner in which the characters are bound together in hybrids, Focke makes the following statement : "In general a fusion or mutual penetration of the characters takes place, frequently, however, in such manner that in one aspect the one, in another the second parental form appears to prevail. Sometimes, for ex- ample, the hybrid recalls in its leaves more the one, in its flowers more the other parental form." (p. 473.) Focke remarks upon the fact that in the crossing of nearly re- lated races, especially color-varieties, plants frequently are de- rived, which resemble exactly or nearly so one of the parent races; citing cases of Brassica rapa^ Linum^ Pisurn, Phaseolus, A/iagalHs, Atropa, and Datura. "Only in the second generation," he says, "does the influence of the older parental race ordinarily betray itself, and in this manner that a part of the seedlings completely or in certain respects revert to it." (P- 474-) "in later generations of the hybrid plants deviations from the char- acters of the parents are still more generally observed." (p. 474.) 3. "Crosses betzueen different races and species are distinguished, as a rule, through their vegetative activity, from the specimens of a pure race. Hybrids between noticeably different species are frequently very tender, especially in youth, so that the rearing of the seedlings succeeds with difficulty. Hybrids between nearly related species and races are, on the other hand, luxuriant and vigorous; they are distinguished for the most part by size, rapidity of growth, early flowering, abundance of flowers, longer life period, vigorous power of reproduction, unusual size of individual organs, and similar characters." (p. 475.) 4. "Hybrids of different species form, in their anthers a more limited number of pollen grains, and in their fruits a more limited number of normal seeds than the plants of pure origin. Frequently they produce neither pollen noir seeds. With hybrids of nearly related races this weak- ening of the capacity for sexual reproduction as a rule is not present. The flowers of the infertile or little fertile hybrids remain fresh as a rule for a long time." (pp. 476-7.) 5. "Abnormalities and structural variations in the flower-parts of hy- brid plants are far more abundant, especially, than on individuals of pure origin." (p. 481.) Focke's treatise is often referred to as being noteworthy for containing, with the sole exception of Hoffman's memoir (3), the only references to Mendel's work anterior to 1900. A. careful study of Focke's report brings into interesting relief the reason for his having failed to appraise the Mendel paper at its present value. In the first place, Focke was especially interested in the works of those who produced more extended contributions. The PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 211 works of Kolreuter, Gartner, Wichura, and Wiegmann, whose works were much more voluminous and pretentious in the field which they occupied, receive appropriate consideration, as do also Naudin's and Godron's prize contributions : but Mendel's paper evidently appeared to F'ocke simply in the guise of one of the numerous, apparently similar, contributions to the knowledge of the results of crossing within some single group. The works of Kolreuter and Gartner, for example, are regarded simply and without question as attempts to compass the sphere of hybridiza- tion phenomena as a whole, and from a much broader standpoint. It was supposedly not at all conceivable, that the laws of hybrid breeding could be compassed within a series of experiments upon a single plant. Whatever experiments Mendel therefore reported were to be considered, like the experiments of Knight and others, merely for whatever obvious data they seemed conspicuously to present. Focke's work is, however, an excellent compendium of all the experiments in crossing done up to 1881. The details of his data are laborious, exact, well classified and scientifically arranged, comprising 79 families of Dicotyledons, 13 families of Monocotyledons, 2 families of Gymnosperms, 2 of Pteridophytes, 1 of the Musci, and 1 of the Algae. It is interesting, in view of the fact that Focke's publication con- stitutes the only actual epitome, in cyclopaedic form, of the hybrid- ization experiments carried on up to his time, to note the relative number of references to the different more important names, as follows: Gartner, 409; Kolreuter, 214; Herbert, 155; Godron, 102; Naudin, 89 ; Darwin, 34; Knight, 32; Caspary, 31; Wieg- mann, 30; Nageli, 28; Lecoq, 26; Wichura, 20; Linnaeus, 21; Mendel, 1^; Hoffmann, 14; Sageret, 10; Shirreff, 3; Rimpau, 2; Seton and Goss, 1 each. The fifteen references to Mendel's name occur on the following pages and in the following connections : p. no Pisum 1 citation p- 111 Phaseolus 1 citation p. 215 Hier actum 2 citations p= 216 Hieracium 1 citation p- 218 Hieracium 5 citations p- 483 Hieracium 1 citation p- 444 Phaseolus and Hieracium 1 citation p- 459 Theoretical matter 1 citation p- 492 Theoretical matter 1 citation 212 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL The most important reference to Mendel in the above is the often-cited remark under the genus Pisum : "Mendel's numerous crossings gave results which were quite similar to those of Knight, but Mendel believed that he found constant number- relationships between the types of the crosses." (p. no.) This Statement manifestly shows a merely superficial under- standing of the real significance of Mendel's results. How far short this understanding actually fell is revealed in the statement immediately following: "In general, the seeds produced through a hybrid pollination preserve also, with peas, exactly the color which belongs to the mother plant, even when from these seeds themselves plants proceed, which entirely resemble the father plant, and which then also bring forth the seeds of the latter." (p. iio.) The facts of dominance, and of the difference in the significance of cotyledon-color and seed-coat color, pass unnoticed. We have here plainly the case of the inheritance of seed-coat color taken for the entire case of seed-inheritance in peas, the dominance of roundness of form discovered by Mendel being clearly overlooked. The next reference is to crossing in Phaseolus. "ph. vulgaris L. var nanus L. ? X multiflorus Lam. fl. coccin. $ was produced artificially by Mendel." (p. ill.) Then follows a paragraph of fourteen lines, discussing in a merely conventional manner the inconclusive results of the cross, the color-characters of flowers and seeds alone being noticed. Mendel's statement with regard to his Phaseolus crosses fBate- son, p. 367) was evidently overlooked, to the effect that "the development of the hybrids, with regard to those characters which concern the form of the plants, follows the same laws as in Pisum,'' as well as his further suggestion regarding the matter of color-inheritance in the plant, as follows (p. 3^7) '• "Even these enigmatical results, however, might probably be explained by the law governing Pisum, if we might assume that the color of the flowers and seeds of Ph. multiflorus is a combination of two or more en- tirely independent colors, which individually act like any other constant character in the plant," the matter being then discussed analytically at length in Mendel's characteristic form of presentation. It seems singular that the peculiarity of Mendel's form of state- ment, and its apparent significance, should have been able to escape Focke's attention. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 213 The remaining passages in which Mendel is referred to, under the discussion of Hieracium (pp. 215, 216, 218, and 483) are as follows : "That hybrids in this genus \Hieraciuin\ are very frequent, is certain; individually, however, many of the views thus far are to be regarded as not sufficiently assured. The hybrids are, according to Mendel's re- sults, polymorphous, but the individual forms as a rule are true from seed [pflegen samenbestandig zu sein]." (p. 215.) "//. auricula L. $ X pilosella L. ^ was artificially produced by Fr. Schultz and G. Mendel." (p. 215.) "Mendel obtained only a single specimen from his artificial cross, H. auric. $ X pilos. $ , which was somewhat fertile and furnished a constant progeny." (p. 216.) "G. Mendel produced //. auric. 9 yC H. prat. $ artificially : he ob- tained 3 specimens, which were markedly different among themselves, and were tolerably fertile ; the progeny of each of these cases resembled the mother plant." (p. 218.) "Mendel obtained H. auricul. 9 X aurantiacum $ , in two materially different specimens, of which one (per-aurant.) was sterile, the other (per-auricula.) produced a single seed." (p. 218.) "H. praealtum Vill. $ X aurantiacum L. ^ was obtained by G. Men- del in two different tolerably fertile specimens. The progeny of each of these individuals resembled the mother plant; however, an individual of the second generation had attained completely normal fertility." (p. 218.) "H. echioides Linn. $ X aurantiacum Linn. ^ G. Mendel obtained in a single specimen, which was completely fertile and true to seed, and even on pollination with the parent pollen furnished no reversions." (p. 218.) "//. praealtum Vill. $ X fiagellare Rchd. $ G. Mendel obtained in a single specimen, whose fertility was nearly normal, and whose progeny was constant." (p. 218.) "The different primary forms of the Hieracium hybrids Mendel found true from seed." (p. 483.) A general statement on p. 444 shows clearly the relative unim- portance of Mendel to Focke's mind, the name being merely that of a person who had made certain experiments calling for men- tion. It will be noted that the peas experiments are not alluded to at all in Focke's general discussion ("Geschichte der Bastard- kunde," 1, pp. 429-45), but merely those with Phaseolus and Hieracium^ as follows : "of the scientific crossing experiments from the most recent time, Rob. Caspary's hybridizations of Nymphaeaceae, G. Mendel's with Phaseolus and Hieracium, D. A. Godron's with Datura, Aegilops X Triticuin, and Papaver, deserve to be designated as particularly instructive. Godron's series of experiments with Datura crosses are to be regarded as the most signal work [als die hervorragendste Leistung]." (1, p. 444.) 214 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL We thus have here, succinctly expressed, the relative point of view held by this tolerably keen scrutinizer of the literature on hybridization up to 1881. It is evident that "G. Mendel's" investi- gations, made very little impression upon the mind of the re- viewer. A further reference to Mendel's name among others appears on p. 459, as follows : "The experiments of Kolreuter, Wiegmann, Gartner, Godron, Naudin, Wichura, Mendel, Caspary, and others, served only scientific ends, while Herbert and Regel united scientific and horticultural ones." {ib., p. 459.) The point of view expressed above is sufficiently evident. The final reference to Mendel is on p. 492, as follows : "To none of the scientific hybrid breeders has it occurred to attach particular species names to his newly-produced plant forms ; Kolreuter and Gartner, Wiegmann and Lehmann, Naudin and Godron, Wichura, Mendel and Caspary, in this respect have proceeded quite uniformly." We thus have, in closing, final testimony as to the merely for- mal and conventional impression which Mendel's researches made upon the European mind up to Focke's time and later. In fact we may say that his papers made no more or further impression, as the evidence shows, than any other two contributions of equal length, published during the time under consideration. It is interesting to note the following extract from Focke's sec- tion on "Xenias," (pp. 510-18). The paragraph discusses Goss's, Seton's, and Knight's peas' experiments : "J. Goss fertilized flowers of the blue-seeded pea, 'Prolific Blue," with pollen of a white dwarf pea. The pods contained yellowish-white seeds which, when sown, furnished plants whose pods contained in part blue, in part white, in part seeds of both kinds. After selection, the blue sort remained constant, the white produced in part pods with white, in part pods with both kinds of seeds. (Trans. Hort. Soc. of London, V, p. 234.) Knight, in his numerous crosses, never observed an immediate change of the seed-color in consequence of the operation of foreign pollen. Alex. Seton saw peas of two colors in the same pod, but just as in the case of Goss arising in a hybrid (Blendling), not immediately in consequence of foreign pollination. (Transact. Hort. Soc. London, V, pp. 236, 379.) Recently, in the meantime, cases are also reported, in which such pods with two kinds of seeds purport to be produced (erzeugt sein sollen) directly in a blue-seeded sort through foreign pollen. (Deutsche Garten- 7,eit, 4 Jahrg, p. 71.) Gartner also obtained seeds a few times in his cross- ing experiments, the color in which had deviated from the mother plant." (1, p. 514.) Knight's peas experiments having consisted in the crossing of PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 215 a white-seeded by a grey-seeded variety, and the dominance of seed-coat color not being evident until the following generation, there would consequently be no xenia effect. It is surprising, however, that Focke should have so clearly overlooked the actual facts in the Goss experiment. The Blue Prussian variety employed as the seed-parent had seeds with deep "blue" cotyledons, or what would evidently properly be called dark green. The pollen parent had "yellowish-white" seeds (i.e., cotyledons). As the result of the cross, Goss obtained three pods, which contained, when ripe, instead of the "deep blue" seeds of the maternal parent, yellowish-white seeds, like those of the pol- len parent. There was thus a perfectly clear case of what is now known as dominance, of the sort referred to by Focke as "xenia." The case of Seton is somewhat similar. A grey-seeded pea (i.e., with grey seed-coats) was crossed with the pollen of a "white- seeded" variety. A pod with four seeds was produced, all of which are stated to have been green. There thus appears, so far as can be judged, to have taken place in the first generation a dominance of green cotyledon color over its absence (white), instead of the usually reported case of the dominance of yellow cotyledon color over green. That such was the case appears from the fact that the seeds of the following year were mingled blue and white in the pods, "mixed indiscriminately and in undefined numbers." They were all completely either of one color, or of the other, none of them having an intermediate tint. It is thus quite evident, that dominance for "xenia") took place in the first generation, followed by segregation in the second. Gartner's case should have been noted of a cross of "Early Green Brockel" {Pisiun sativum viride) with green cotyledons, with "White-flowered creeping pea" (Pisum sativum nanum repens) with yellow seeds, in which a pod with five seeds, all yellow, was produced as the result of the cross. (Gartner, "Versuche und Beobachtungen," pp. 84-5.) There was thus here a clear case of" color dominance ("xenia") in the cotyledons Which does not appear to have particularly attracted Focke's attention. Focke was, until his death in October, 1922, a practising physi- cian of the city of Bremen. His interest in all biological, and especially in botanical questions, was considerable. He was like- wise interested in philosophical problems, and was a vigorous 2i6 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL supporter of Darwin. Focke was the founder of the Natural His- tory Society in Bremen (1864), and until 1895 remained the editor of its "Transactions." His best-known botanical contribution is his "Pflanzenmischlinge" (1881), besides which he published in 1877 a "Synopsis Ruborum Germaniae" and "Species Ruborum, Monographia, Generis Rubi Prodromus," published in the Biblio- theka Botanica, 1914. He is reported as having contributed greatly as a physician to the development of medical science in Bremen. On his eightieth birthday, a "Festheft" appeared in his honor in the Abhandlungen of the Natural History Society of Bremen, Vol. 23. 28. The Hoffman Mendel Citations. Aside from Focke's the only other reference to Mendel before 1900 is made by Hermann Hoffmann, "Untersuchungen zur Bes- timmung des Werthes von Species and Varietat," at Giessen, 1869, referred to by R. C. Punnett, in Nature, Vol. 116, p. 606, Octo- ber 24, 1925. Hoffman was Professor of Botany at Giessen, and became en- gaged, from 1855, upon experiments with varieties of garden beans, the results of which were reported in the Botanische Zei- tung for 1862. As a result of these experiments it was found that small variations which appeared in the seeds did not lead to the formation of permanent new forms, but rather, on continued (isolated) culture, reverted every tim^e immediately to the funda- mental form. (p. 1.) The experiments were continued in the light of Darwin's "Origin of Species" which appeared in 1859, the object of the experiments being to determine whether new species and varieties continue to originate from natural selection, or through physical and similar influences. Hoffmann's contribution of 1869 is therefore a study chiefly of variation, the question being as to whether "varieties" can be "fixed." The chief portion of the paper (pp. 47-80), is devoted to the author's selection experiments with varieties of Phaseolus vul- garis, x^lthough some crossing was attempted, the experiments are almost entirely in selection for color in the seed-coat. The ultimate aim of the investigation was the determination of the value of species and varieties, and the fixability of varieties. Hoffmann concludes (pp. 169-71) that certain varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 217 are "true species," and that the same is the case for some varieties of peas, and that, in the case of Phaseolus multiflorus and several so-called sub-species of P. vulgaris^ and in most of the white- Plate XXXVIII. Hermann Hoffmann. Professor of Botany at the University of Giessen (1855). flowered varieties of blue or red-flowered species, and in a variety of Pisum sativum^ color is not fixable. Variation and the results of crossing are briefly discussed in the case of 159 genera. Among these, under "Geum" (No. 71, 2i8 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL p. 112), Mendel's reference to Gartner's cross of G. urhanum X rivale is referred to as follows : "From G. urhanum X rivale Gartner appears to have raised exceed- ingly fertile and constant hybrids (according to Mendel, Verh. nat. hist. Ver. Briinn. IV, p. 40). I do not find this verified on the reading of the original. (Bast. Erz. 698)." (The Mendel reference in question is found on p. 373 of Bate- son's "Mendel's Principles of Heredity," under the caption "Con- cluding Remarks," in Mendel's first paper.) At p. 136 of Hoffmann, No. 118, under the heading of the genus Pisum^ appears the following : "Pisum in 6 years' observations by G. Mendel (Verh. Nat. Histor. Ver. zu Briinn, 1865, IV, pp. 6 and 33). Hybrids of Pisum sativum, etc., from forms true to seed." After a considerable discussion of the possibilities in respect to accidental crossing by insects (referring still to Mendel), Hoff- mann concludes as follows: "Hybrids possess an inclination in the following generation to strike back to the parental species." It seems extraordinary that, as Punnett remarks, although Hoff- mann's somewhat extended experiments were carried on with Phaseolus, he should have made no mention of Mendel's experi- ments with this genus, which should have been easily noticed, since they were reported upon toward the close of the paper on peas. No mention is made of Mendel's paper on Hieracium crosses, although a brief paragraph (No. 75, p. 144) is devoted by Hoff- mann to Hieracium variation studies. BIBLIOGRAPHY Focke, Wilhelm Olbers. Die Pflanzenmischlinge, ein Beitrag zur Biologic der Ge- wachse. Berlin, 1881. Gartner, Carl Friedrich von. (a) Versuche und Beobachtungen iiber die Befruchtungsor- gane der vollkommeneren Gewachse, und iiber die na- PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 219 tiirliche und kiinstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Naturwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, Tiibin- gen 1:1. (b) Notice sur des experiences concernant la fecondation de quelques vegetaux. Annales des sciences naturelles, 10: 113-48, 1827. (Translation of the preceding.) (c) Beantwoording der Prysvraag over Bastardeering. Na- tuurkundige Verhandelingen van de HoUandische Maat- schappy van Wetenschappen te Haarlem. 1844. (d) Over de Voortteling van Baastard-Planten. Eene Biitrage tot de Kennis van de Bevruchting der Gewassen. Haar- lem, 1838. (e) Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Befruchtung. Stuttgart, 1849. (f) Versuche und Beobachtungen iiber die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich. Stuttgart, 1849. (g) Methode der kiinstlichen Bastardbefruchtung der Ge- wachse, und Namensverzeichniss der Pflanzen mit wel- chen Versuche eingestellt wurden. Stuttgart, 1849. 3. Hojjmayin^ Hermann. Untersuchungen sur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietat : ein Beitrag zur Kritik der Darwin'schen Hypothese. Giessen, 1869, pp. 171. 4. Ndgeli^ Carl von. (a) tJber den Einfluss der ausseren Verhaltnisse auf die Varietatenbildung im Pflanzenreiche. Botanische Mit- theilungen, 2: 103-58. November 18, 1865. (b) tJber die Bedingungen des Vorkommens von Arten und Varietaten innerhalb ihres Verbreitungsbezirkes. Sit- zungsberichte der koniglichen Akademie der Wissen- schaften zu MiJnchen, 2:23a. December 15, 1865. Bot- anische Mittheilungen, 2: 159-87. (c) Die Bastardbildung im Pflanzenreiche. ibid., 2:395-443. December 15, 1865. Botanische Mittheilungen, 2:187- 235- (d) tJber die abgele'<"eten Pflanzenbastarde. ibid., January 13, 1866. Botanische Mittheilungen, 2 : 237-59. 220 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL (e) Die Theorie der Bastardbildung. ibid., January 13, i856. Botanische Mittheilungen, 2 : 259-93. (f) Die Zwischenformen zwischen den Pflanzenarten. ibi^., February 16, 1866. Botanische Mittheilungen, 2:294- 339- (g) Intermediate forms in plants. Gardeners' Chronicle, p. 405, 1867. (h) Die systematische Behandlung der Hieracien, riicksicht lich der Mittelformen. ibid., March 10, 1866. Botanische Mittheilungen, 2 : 340-69. (i) Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstammungs- lehre. Munich, 1884. 5. Kegel, Eduard August. tJber Varietaten und Bastarde im Pflanzenreiche. Mittheilun- gen der naturforschenden Gesellschaft im Ziirich. (1). Heft 2 : 69-71. January, 1848. 6. Wichura, Max. Die Bastardbefruchtung im Pflanzenreich, erliiutert an den Bastarden der Weiden. Breslau, 1865. 7. Wiegmann, A. F. tJber die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreiche. Braunschweig, 1828. CHAPTER VII THE WORK OF CHARLES DARWIN 29. Darwin s Contribution to the Theory of Hybrids. THE period from 1859 until the rediscovery of Mendel's papers in 1900 was so strongly colored by the views of Charles Darwin, and so dominated by the magnitude of his work, that it sometimes seems as though originality and initia- tive during that period had been considerably abandoned, and as though, so far as evolution was concerned, the scientific world had remained content simply to quote the work of Darwin. It is the purpose of the present chapter to present the contribu- tions of Darwin to the knowledge of hybrids. To this end it seems desirable, so far as possible, to let Darwin's words speak for themselves, and hence, although the text may seem burdened with extracts, yet, for those interested in tracing the history of ideas in genetics, it will perhaps be of service to assemble such a resume of Darwin's work and thought in the field of hybridization. Brought together in such a way, an author's contribution can be more successfully evaluated at leisure by those who may be in- terested. The writer has therefore sought to bring together, in somewhat connected and coherent form, the various views, con- clusions, and experimental data on the subject of hybrids and hybridization found in Darwin's different writings. On November 24, 18^9, appeared the first edition of "The Origin of Species" (la), antedating by seven years the appear- ance of the papers of Mendel. One of the primary questions concerning crossing that inter- ested Darwin was the matter of sterility and fertility in hybrids. Investigators before Darwin's time had been to a considerable extent obsessed by the species question, which crossing was sup- posed to solve. If a cross succeeded, or produced fertile offspring. 222 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL it argued that the parent forms were "varieties." If the cross failed, or if its offspring were sterile, it demonstrated that they were "species." With the sole exception of Sageret (2), none of the earlier hybridists seems to have formed, as the result of ex- periment, anything like the modern conception of characters as PUTE XXXIX. Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 223 biological units, and, with the sole exception of Naudin and Darwin, no scientihc theory was even conceived of, which might explain the modus operandi of amphimixis in the case of hybrids. By Darwin the question of hybridization, while indeed for the most part taken up more or less conventionally, received neverthe- less broader treatment. To begin with, Darwin held that the in- ability of species to cross ". . . is often completely independent of their systematic affinity, that is of any difference in their structure or constitution, excepting in their reproductive systems." (la, 2:14.) So that, even as early as the writing of the "Origin of Species," Darwin is seen to maintain that the susceptibility of plants to crossing stood in no necessary relation to the degree of their re- semblance, and that ". . . facility of making a first cross between any two species is not always governed by their systematic affinity or degree of resemblance to each other." (la, 2:16.) This fact, he adds, is demonstrated by the case of reciprocal crosses, alluding here to the relative facility of making the cross, according as the one or the other species is used as the male or the female. "Occasionally," he says, there is "the widest possible difference, in the facility of effecting a union. The hybrids, moreover, produced from reciprocal crosses, often differ in fertility." {ib.) Darwin again later, in "Animals and Plants under Domestica- tion," refers to the matter as follows : "why should some species cross with facility, and yet produce very sterile hybrids ; and other species cross with extreme difficulty, and yet produce fairly fertile hybrids'? Why should there often be so great a difference in the result of a reciprocal cross between the same two species*?" {ib., p. 217.) Darwin comments frequently, in the "Origin of Species," upon the fact that the hybrids produced from reciprocal crosses often differ in fertility, and that, while two species may be difficult to cross, there is no strict parallelism between the difficulty of effect- ing the cross, and the degree of sterility of the hybrids resulting therefrom. As Darwin observes, difference in the results, in respect to the relative ease of making reciprocal crosses, had been previously noted by Kolreuter, who found, after two hundred trials con- 224 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL tinued over a period of eight years, that, while Mirabilis jalapa could easily be fertilized by M. longiflora, the reverse cross could not be effected. With regard to the difference in the facility with which reciprocal crosses can be made, there may be some funda- mental resemblance between this fact and the ease with which reciprocal grafts can be made, wherein Darwin instances the fact that the currant can, although with difificulty, be grafted upon the gooseberry, while the reciprocal graft cannot be made. Cer- tainly the well-established truth of factorial mutations in vegeta- tive cells, followed by germinal differences to correspond, should sufficiently indicate that the behavior of the somatic and of the reproductive cells ought not to be regarded as being so sharply separated as is usually done. At all events, the problem of the reason for the relative difference in the respective facility of mak- ing reciprocal crosses, as well as the further one of such differ- ences as exist, in the case of mule and hinny, between the re- spective products of reciprocal crosses, are questions that have been too little investigated since Darwin's time, and require ex- planation. Since the advent of Mendelian studies in 1900, it has been rather conventionally assumed that reciprocal crosses are more or less identical in type. That such is not necessarily the case, Darwin's early observations should suffice to indicate. The problem of the fertility of selfed and crossed plants en- gaged Darwin's close interest. In forty-one cases, belonging to twenty-three species, the ratio of the fertility of the crossed to that of the self-fertilized plants, was found to be as 100:60. In another experiment to determine the relative fertility of flow- ers when crossed or selfed, the ratio in thirty cases, belonging to twenty-seven species, was as 100:55". There is no evidence, Darwin finds, ". . . that the fertility of plants goes on diminishing in successive self- fertilized generations," and "no close correspondence, either in the parent plants or in the successive generations, between the relative number of seeds produced by the crossed and self-fertilized flowers, and the relative powers of growth of the seedlings raised from such seeds." (lb, p. 327.) Darwin's investigations were directed quite extensively to the question of self-sterility in plants, a field which bears strongly PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 225 upon our knowledge of heredity, but in which likewise, until re- cently, comparatively little experimental work had been done since his time. As the result of his own studies, supplemented by those of Hildebrand and Fritz Miiller, he was able to say: "We may therefore confidently assert, that a self-sterile plant can be fertilized by the pollen of any one of a thousand or ten thousand in- dividuals of the same species, but not by its own." {ib., p. 347.) Regarding all the causes of sterility, or inability to accept fertilization, we are still somewhat at a loss for a complete ex- planation, although recent chromosome discoveries are throwing light upon the subject. Darwin states the situation in his time: "The veil of secrecy is as yet far from lifted ; nor will it be until we can say why it is beneficial that the sexual elements should be differ- entiated to a certain extent, and why, if the differentiation be carried still further, injury follows. It is an extraordinary fact, that, with many species, flowers fertilized with their own pollen are either absolutely or in some degree sterile ; if fertilized with pollen from another flower on the same plant, they are sometimes, though rarely, a little more fertile ; if fertilized with pollen from another individual or variety of the same species, they are fully fertile ; but if with pollen from a distant species they are sterile in all possible degrees, until utter sterility is reached. Thus we have a long series with absolute sterility at the two ends ; at one end due to the sexual elements not having been differentiated, and at the other end to their having been differentiated in too great a degree, or in some peculiar manner." {ib., pp. 460-1.) The questions which Darwin raises in this connection are as fol- lows (p. 458) : 1. Why the individuals of some species profit greatly, others very little, by being crossed. . 2. Why the advantages from crossing seem to accrue exclu- sively now to the vegetative and now to the reproductive system, although generally to both. 3. Why some members of a species should be sterile, while others are entirely fertile with their own pollen. 4. Why a change of environment or of climate should affect the sterility of self-sterile specPes. 5- Why the members of some species should be more fertile with the pollen from another species than with their own. Regarding the general matter of sterility in hybrids, Darwin comments as follows : "it is notorious that, when distinct species of plants are crossed, they produce, with the rarest exceptions, fewer seeds than the normal num- 226 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL ber. This unproductiveness varies in different species up to sterility so complete that not even an empty capsule is formed." (lb, p. 468.) "it is also notorious that not only the parent species, but the hybrids raised from them, are more or less sterile, and that their pollen is often in a more or less aborted condition. The degree of sterility of various hybrids does not always strictly correspond with the degree of difficulty in uniting the parent forms. When hybrids are capable of breeding inter se, their descendants are more or less sterile, and they often be- come still more sterile in the later generations." {ib., p. 469.) "with the majority of species, flowers fertilized with their own pollen yield fewer, sometimes much fewer seeds, than those fertilized with pollen from another individual or variety." (ib., p. 469.) As the result of his investigations regarding sterility of pollen, Darwin was able to render at least one service, that of removing the obsession which had so long afflicted the study of the hybrid question, viz., the variety-species discussion. He says: "it can thus be shown that neither sterility nor fertility affords any certain distinction between species and varieties. The evidence from this source graduates away, and is doubtful in the same degree as is the evidence derived from other constitutional and structural differences." (la, 2:4.) The question of the chemical and cytological basis for sterility or non-receptivity to pollen remains still in part a field for the investigator. One of the most important questions from the present-day viewpoint which Darwin investigated was that of heterosis, the relative vigor of the first generation hybrids as compared with that of their parents. The following allusions occur in the "Origin of Species." Darwin comments on the fact that crosses between individuals of the same species, where they differ to a certain extent, give increased vigor and fertility, while close-fertilization long con- tinued almost always leads to physical degeneracy, and re- marks : "We know also that a cross between distinct individuals of the same variety, and between distinct varieties, increases the number of the off- spring, and certainly gives to them increased size and vigour." (la, 2 : 269.) Darwin thoroughly investigated, as is well known, the com- parative relation of the offspring of crossed to those of selfed plants with respect to vigor. "I have made so many experiments, and collected so many facts, show- ing on the one hand that an occasional cross with a distinct individual PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 227 or variety increases the vigour and fertility of the offspring, and on the other hand that very close interbreeding lessens their vigour and fertility, that I cannot doubt the correctness of this conclusion." (2a, "Again, both with plants and animals, there is the clearest evidence that a cross between individuals of the same species, which differ to a certain extent, gives vigour and fertility to the offspring; and that close interbreeding continued during several generations between the nearest relations, if these be kept under the same conditions of life, almost al- ways leads to decreased size, weakness, or sterility." (la, 2:27-8.) In "Cross and Self-Fertilization," Darwin again discusses the effects of crossing as follows, expressing the view : "Firstly, that the advantages of cross-fertilization do not follow from some mysterious virtue in the mere union of two distinct individuals, but from such individuals having been subjected during previous genera- tions to different conditions, or to their having varied in a manner com- monly called spontaneous, so that in either case their sexual elements have been in some degree differentiated; and secondly, that the injury from self-fertilization follows from the want of such differentiation in the sexual elements." (lb, p. 448.) "After plants have been propagated by self-fertilization for several generations, a single cross with a fresh stock restores their pristine vigour and we have a strictly analogous result with our domestic ani- mals." (lb, p. 444.) "A cross with a fresh stock, or with another variety, seems to be always beneficial whether or not the mother plants have been intercrossed or self-fertilized for several previous generations." (lb, p. 449.) Darwin also remarks upon the greater power of the cross- fertilized plants in his experiments to stand exposure, the crossed plants enduring sudden removal from greenhouse to out-of-doors conditions better than did the self-fertilized, and also resisting cold, and intemperate weather conditions more successfully. This was the case with morning-glory and. with Mimulus. "The offspring of plants of the eighth self-fertilized generation of Mimulus, crossed by a fresh stock, survived a frost which killed every single self-fertilized and intercrossed plant of the old stock." (lb, p. 289.) "Independently of any external cause which could be detected, the self-fertilized plants were more liabre to premature death than the crossed." {ib., p. 290.) Out of several hundred plants in all, involved in the experi- ment, only seven of the crossed plants died, while at least twenty- nine of the self-fertilized were thus lost. With regard to time of flowering, in four out of fifty-eight cases a crossed, in nine cases a selfed, plant flowered first. 228 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Darwin broached the view that the increased vigor of first generation hybrids was chiefly due to the forms used in the cross having been exposed to somewhat different conditions of life. He also contended that his experiments proved that: "if all the individuals of the same variety can be subjected during several generations to the same conditions, the good derived from cross- ing is often much diminished or wholly disappears." (la, 2:270.) This statement appears to be an obiter dictum of Darwin's, to the support of which he does not adduce direct experimental evi- dence. Again he says : "Anyhow my experiments indicate that crossing plants, which have been long subjected to almost though not quite the same conditions, is the most powerful of all the means for retaining some degree of differentiation in the sexual elements, as shown by the superiority in the later generations of the intercrossed over the self-fertilized seedlings." (lb, pp. 454-5-) "We know," he says, "that a plant propagated for some generations in another garden in the same district serves as a first stock, and has high fertilizing powers." {ib., p. 455.) The importance of this view has yet, so far as the writer knows, to be re-investigated under controlled conditions. It was Darwin's view, as the result of his experiments, that the increased vigor of intercrossed plants is due to the constitu- tion or nature of the sexual elements, which conditions he took to be of the general nature of differentiation due to the action of environment. "It is certain," he says, "that the differences are not of an external nature, for two plants which resemble each other as closely as the in- dividuals of the same species ever do, profit in the plainest manner when intercrossed, if their progenitors have been exposed during several gen- erations to different conditions." (lb, p. 270.) Darwin asserts that there is not a single case in his experi- ments ". . . which affords decisive evidence against the rule that a cross be- tween plants, the progenitors of which have been subjected to some- what diversified conditions, is beneficial to the offspring." {ib., p. 281.) The fact that increased vegetative vigor In first generation hy- brids was also sometimes accompanied by diminished fertility was likewise observed by Darwin. "For it deserves especial attention that mongrel animals and plants. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 229 which are so far from being sterile that their fertility is often actually augmented, have, as previously shown, their size, hardiness, and constitu- tional vigour generally increased. It is not a little remarkable that an accession of vigour and size should thus arise under the opposite contin- gencies of increased and diminished fertility," (ic, 2: 108.) In the case of Darwin's experiments to determine the relative effects upon vigor of selling and crossing, respectively, the data were determined chiefly with respect to height and weight of the plants, which were grown on opposite sides of the same pot in all instances. Regarding the relative heights and weights of 292 plants de- rived from a cross with a fresh stock, and of 305 plants either selfed or intercrossed between plants of the same stock, and be- longing to thirteen species and twelve genera, Darwin says : "Considering all the cases . . . there can be no doubt that plants profit immensely, though in different ways, by a cross with a fresh stock, or with a distinct sub-variety." He emphasizes further, "it cannot be main- tained that the benefit thus derived is due merely to the plants of the fresh stock being perfectly healthy, whilst those which had been long intercrossed or self-fertilized had become unhealthy; for in most cases there was no appearance of such unhealthiness." {ib., p. 269.) Experiments were also made with plants belonging to five genera in four different families. One of the most interesting cases was that of a plant of marjoram (^Origanum vulgar e). The height of the crossed was to that of the selfed as 100 : 86. "They differed also to a wonderful degree in constitutional vigour. The crossed plants flowered first, and produced twice as many flower- stems; and they afterwards increased by stolons to such an extent as almost to overwhelm the self-fertilized plants." (lb, p. 302.) Darwin holds that the inferiority of the selfed seedlings in height can have been in no way due to any morbidity or disease in the mother plants ; certainly, he maintains, no such theory of a diseased condition would in anywise hold, in the case of ". . . intercrossing the individuals of the same variety or distinct va- rieties, if these have been subjected durilig some generations to different conditions." (lb, p. 450.) In four out of the five cases experimented with, the intercrossing of flowers upon the same plant did not differ in effect from the strictest self-fertilization. He says : "On the whole, the results here arrived at . . . agree well with our general conclusion that the advantage of a cross depends on the progeni- tors of the crossed plants possessing somewhat different constitutions, 23C PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL either from having been exposed to different conditions, or to their hav- ing varied from unknown causes in a manner which we in our ignor- ance are forced to speak of as spontaneous." (lb, pp. 302-3.) Darwin's experiments indicated, as in the case of heartsease and sweet peas, that ". . . the advantage derived from a cross between two plants was not confined to the offspring of the first generation." (lb, p. 305.) "Laxton's varieties [of sweet peas] produced by artificial crosses," as Darwin says, "have retained their astonishing vigour and luxuriance for a considerable number of generations." {ib., p. 305.) Darwin concludes : "As the advantage from a cross depends on the plants which are crossed differing somewhat in constitution, it may be inferred as prob- able that under similar conditions a cross between the nearest relations would not benefit the offspring so much as one between non-related plants." {ib., p. 305.) Darwin finally also remarks in general : "it is interesting to observe . . . the graduated series from plants which, when fertilized by their own pollen, yield the full number of seeds, but with the seedlings a little dwarfed in stature, to plants which, when self-fertilized, yield few seeds, to those which yield none, but have their ovaria somewhat developed, and, lastly, to those in which the plant's own pollen and stigma mutually act on one another like poison." (ic, 2: 119.) The relative weight and germinative energy of seeds from crossed and from self-fertilized plants, was investigated by Dar- win in the case of sixteen species, with the result that the weight of the seeds of the former to that of the latter was found on the average to be as 100:96. In ten out of the sixteen cases, the self-fertilized seeds were either equal or superior to the crossed in weight, and in six out of these ten, the plants raised from these selfed seeds were greatly superior in height and in other respects to those from the crossed seeds. In the matter of the germination of selfed and crossed seeds, the results were conflicting. Darwin, however, discovered that, in general, seedlings of greater con- stitutional vigor are obtained when crossed by other individuals of the same stock than when pollinated by their own pollen. In plants of fifty-seven different species belonging in all to fifty-two genera and to thirty different families, Darwin carried out the most extensive experiment yet on record, conducted for the purpose of determining the difference in size between the off- spring of cross-fertilized and of close-fertilized plants. PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 231 The total number of the crossed plants amounted to 1,101, and of the selfed plants to 1,076. As a result, Darwin found that the plants derived from crosses between different strains of the same species were taller on the average, than plants derived from crosses within the same strain, and taller in the latter case than in the case of the offspring of self-fertilized plants. The average ratio of 620 crossed to 607 selfed plants in respect to height, de- rived from Darwin's tables, was as 100:86. From the fact that flower buds are in a sense distinct individual plant units, which sometimes vary and differ widely from one another, and yet, when on the same plant, owing to the fact that the whole plant has come from the same fertilized cell, rarely are widely differentiated, Darwin reasons that the effects of inter- crossing can be explained. He says : "The fact that a cross between two flowers on the same plant does no good or very little good, is likewise a strong corroboration of our con- clusion ; for the sexual elements in the flowers on the same plant can rarely have been differentiated, though this is possible, as flower buds are in one sense distinct individuals, sometimes varying and differing from one another in structure and constitution." (lb, p. 449.) "Thus," he concludes, "the proposition that the benefit from cross fertilization depends on the plants which are crossed having been sub- jected during previous generations to somewhat different conditions, or to their having varied from some unknown cause as if they had been thus subjected, is securely fortified from all sides." (lb, p. 449.) Darwin comments also on the reversed situation, where changes in the external conditions result in sterility, for which he seeks to find a logical connection with the condition induced by crossing. "For as, on the one hand, slight changes in the conditions of life are favourable to plants and animals, and the crossing of varieties adds to the size, vigour, and fertility of their offspring, so, on the other hand, certain other changes in the conditions of life cause sterility ; and as this likewise ensues from crossing much modified forms or species, we have a parallel and a double series of facts which apparently stand in close relation to each other." (ic, 2:126.)- Darwin appears to hold the ill effects of close fertilization to be due to the fact that the sexual elements in the different flow- ers on the same plant have not differentiated, while in his con- clusion he appears to consider the benefits of cross-fertilization to be due to the individuals involved in the cross having been differentiated through being exposed to different conditions. 232 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL Darwin frequently emphasizes the same view regarding the differentiating effects of a new environment. "But hardly any cases afford more striking evidence how powerfully a change in the conditions of life acts on the sexual elements, than those already given, of plants which are completely self-sterile in one country, and when brought to another, yield, even in the first generation, a fair supply of self-fertilized seeds." (lb, p. 452,) And again, ". . . We know that a plant propagated for some generations in another garden in the same district serves as a fresh stock and has high fertilizing powers. The curious cases of plants which can fertilize and be fertilized by any other individual of the same species, but are altogether sterile with their own pollen, become intelligible, if the view here propounded is correct, namely, that the individuals of the same species growing in a state of nature near together have not really been subjected during sev- eral previous generations to quite the same conditions." (lb, pp. 455-6.) "when two varieties which present well-marked differences are crossed, their descendants in the later generations differ greatly from one another in external characters; and this is due to the augmentation or oblitera- tion of some of these characters, and to the reappearance of former ones through reversion ; and so it will be, as we may feel almost sure, with any slight differences in the constitution of their sexual elements." (lb, p. 454.) With regard to the ill effects derived from self-fertilization, Da